A Modern History of Chinas Art Market (Kejia Wu) (Z-Library) - Compressed

“There is much to be learned from this fascinating volume on the history and
economics of the art market in the People’s Republic, so radically affected by

political events of the last seventy years. Readers interested in the restitution
of looted works of art will discover a relatively unknown seam of material on
the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, enriched by Kejia Wu’s inclusion of
personal recollections and experiences of those involved.”
Derek Gillman, Distinguished Teaching Professor and
Executive Director, University Collections and Exhibitions,
Drexel University, former Director of the Barnes Foundation
“It is rare to find a book that embeds art into the broader political events and
economic transformation of a nation. Kejia Wu’s perspective is unique—she was
part of the re-emergence of contemporary art in China, and the re-integration
of China into the global art world and market, and has remained an authoritative
commentator and analyst about the art and markets of China. Her stories are fas-
cinating, the writing is engaging and the tale she tells is an important one about
the role of art, and arts institutions in the modern world.”
William N. Goetzmann, Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of
Finance and Management Studies Yale School of Management
A MODERN HISTORY OF
CHINA’S ART MARKET
This is the first English-language account of the modern history of China’s art
market that explains the radical transformations from the end of the Cultural
Revolution, when a market for art and artifacts did not exist, to today.
The book is divided into three sections: Part I examines how the art market
in China was suspended during the Cultural Revolution, restarted, grew, and
expanded into its current scale. Part II analyzes the distinctive value system of
the Chinese art market where the state-r un art system including academies, artist
associations and museums co-exist with an independent market-oriented system;
and traverses the most significant policies that drive decision-m aking and market
structure. Part III explores the driving force of art creation by telling the stories
of five contemporary artists across three generations.
Arts and culture professionals, scholars, and students interested in Chinese art,
global art markets, Chinese government policy, and China will find this to be a
valuable resource.
Kejia Wu is a columnist for the Financial Times Chinese Edition and a trustee of
the New York Studio School. She authored The European Fine Art Foundation’s
China Art Market Report and was awarded Art Market Observer of the Year
by ArtReview Asia, LEAP, and The Art Newspaper China Edition. Previously, she
was a member of the faculty at Claremont Graduate University and Sotheby’s
Institute of Art and oversaw Asia projects and strategy at Sotheby’s in the office
of the CEO. Kejia is a graduate of Yale University and Renmin University.
A MODERN HISTORY OF
CHINA’S ART MARKET
Kejia Wu
Designed cover image: Three Decades (Detail), 2019, Oil on Canvas,
210 x 420 cm © Li Songsong
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Kejia Wu
The right of Kejia Wu to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wu, Kejia, author.
Title: A modern history of China’s art market / Kejia Wu.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2022055368 (print) |
LCCN 2022055369 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032287966 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032287973 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003298540 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art–Economic aspects–China. |
Art and society–China–History–20th century. | Art and society–China–History–21st century.
Classification: LCC N8600 .W79 2023 (print) | LCC N8600 (ebook) |
DDC 338.4/770951–dc23/eng/20230114
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022055368
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022055369
ISBN: 978-1-032-28796-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28797-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-29854-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
This book is dedicated to my Grandmother and the memory of my Grandfather
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements xi

Acronyms and Names xvi
PART I
China’s Art Market: A Modern History 1
1 The Origin of China’s Art Market 3
2 Auction Houses, Galleries, Art Fairs and Private Museums 29
3 Expectations for the Market 58
PART II
The State and Its Art System 75
4 The Paradox of Two Parallel Art Systems 77
5 The Role of Arts and Culture in Today’s China 107
6 The Infrastructure of the State Art System and the Party’s

Strategic Plan 136
x Contents
PART III
Independent Artists Finding Creative Space 171
7 Beijing, CAFA and Societal Energy 173
8 Shanghai, Buddhist Practice and the Post-Apocalyptic

Digital World 209
9 Hong Kong, Plants and Ten Thousand Things 235
Index 254
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
曲则全，枉则直，洼则盈，敝则新，少则得，多则惑。是以圣人抱一为天下式
—Dao De Jing, Chapter 22
2022 marked the 30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour in 1992
which propelled forward a surge of reforms, enabling the transition from a
planned economy to a market economy for the People’s Republic of China.
Between those years GDP absolutely exploded, increasing 40 times over that
period, catapulting China to the second-largest economy in the world.
Over those three decades, China’s art market experienced an equally awe-
inspiring transformation. According to the Art Market Report 2022, in 2021
China’s art auction market became the largest in the world based on transaction
value, ahead of the US and the UK.1 Back in 1992, art transaction volume was
so low that a standalone auction law framework had not yet been necessary to
be enacted. The first art auction house in the country, Shanghai Duo Yun Xuan
Auctioneer Co. Ltd. had just been registered and would not hold its first auction
until a year later. Today the two largest art auction houses in China, China
Guardian Auctions and Beijing Poly International Auction, founded in 1993 and
2005 respectively, have annual sales that exceed nearly all of their Western peers.
How did the art market in China achieve such fast growth within a short
period of time? How are important arts and culture policies promulgated by the
state? Who are the institutions implementing these policies? How do Chinese
contemporary artists evolve in this environment? How will these transform-
ations impact the global art world?
This book, by unveiling the mystery behind the radical changes in China’s art
market, hopes to address these critical questions. It covers the most transforma-
tive decades of the art market and of Chinese contemporary art development
since the founding of the PRC.
xii Preface and Acknowledgements
The book consists of three parts, each containing three chapters. The focal
point of Part I is the transformation of the art market in China from the Cultural
Revolution to the present and beyond.
Chapter 1 investigates the rebirth of the art trade at the end of the 1970s after
it was suspended during the Cultural Revolution. It tells a number of stories
about post-Cultural Revolution restitution, a subject rarely discussed.
Chapter 2 examines the rise and fall of the art market since the first public art
auction was held in 1993. In 2011, China was brief ly the largest art market in the
world. In 2012 it suffered a more than 50% decline in trading value. Subsequently,
the art market experienced a period of f luctuation. We will survey the overall
art ecosystem to understand how it has matured to support an increasing number
and diverse set of galleries, art fairs and private museums.
Chapter 3 provides an outlook on the future direction of the market. We will
learn about why more Western galleries are expected to enter China and why
Chinese auction houses want to become more international. Meanwhile, we will
hear from some private museum owners to understand why some might not be
able to sustain operations over the long run.
Part II provides an in-depth analysis of the state-endorsed art system in China
and the government policies that attempt to orchestrate activities in the arts and
culture sector.
Chapter 4 discusses how the state- endorsed art system and the market-
oriented art system co-exist in parallel. It examines the complexity of the current
ecosystem, which is far from binary. The chapter ref lects on how the two systems
interact and inf luence each other; and how their intertwined trajectories of
development will continue to shape the future landscape of China’s art sector.
Chapter 5 analyzes the government’s cultural policies which have been and
will continue to play an instrumental role in shaping the development of arts
in China. In particular, the key messages conveyed by Xi Jinping through a
series of speeches to the state arts and culture institutions, have been thoroughly
studied by the arts and culture policymakers. These speeches, together with other
publications expounding upon Xi Jinping Thought, have offered overarching
guidelines for state institutions to develop strategic plans, draft regulations and
conduct their supervision of the arts and culture sector.
Chapter 6 investigates the essential institutions within the state art system. It
analyzes the most pivotal actions taken over the past decade by the institutions
in the state art system in charge of carrying out Xi’s requirements on Cultural
Construction under the CCP’s leadership and looks at the more stringent cen-
sorship criteria and longer censorship review periods. The chapter also examines
the government’s 2035 strategic goal of becoming a global arts and culture
powerhouse. A vital component of these plans is an unprecedented emphasis
on a national cultural digital strategy. This strategy is in line with the CCP
statement: “The CCP Central Committee clearly stated that if the internet is not
fully controlled, the long-term governance of the Party will not be achieved.”2
Preface and Acknowledgements xiii
Part III of the book examines how Chinese contemporary artists have
developed a variety of artistic philosophies and styles that have given them space
for creativity in both the past and present environments. It provides examples of
five artists who are from three different generations. Some of them experienced
numerous house-ransacks by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
Others, born after the Cultural Revolution, enjoyed relatively early career success
after graduating from the top art academies. All of them have achieved domestic
and international recognition. They all have experienced various degrees of cen-
sorship challenges. But such hurdles did not discourage them from creating the
artworks that they believe in.
Chapter 7 tells the stories of two Beijing- based artists, Xu Bing and Li
Songsong, who both graduated from the leading art academy in China, the
Central Academy of Fine Arts. Although the mediums and styles of their cre-
ation differ significantly, both masterfully incorporate societal energy as a crucial
element in their artmaking.
Chapter 8 discusses the career of two Shanghai-based artists, Qiu Anxiong
and Lu Yang. Born a generation apart, both integrate Buddhist philosophy into
their artistic creation. Their video works, taking distinctive creative approaches,
often interrogate our modern society by portraying a dystopian world.
Chapter 9 reviews the creative path of Beijing-born, Hong Kong-based artist
Zheng Bo. Named by Artnet as one of the biennial stars in 2022, his socially
engaged and ecologically engaged art, particularly his plant- related videos,
drawings and practices are based on Daoist philosophy, ref lecting deep issues
between human society and nature.
These five artists, though only a tiny sample of the Chinese contemporary
artists who have emerged over the past few decades, exemplify how art cre-
ation in China has entered a new stage of evolution. Despite a wide spectrum of
medium use and diverse genres, the new stage of creation demonstrates several
signature features, including a profound understanding of traditional Asian phil-
osophies, a global perspective and critical thinking that refuses to look away from
vital issues in our society.
With a variety of powerful forces playing crucial roles concurrently, the his-
tory of China’s art market has been constantly evolving and shaping new courses
of development. This is why the subject fascinates so many scholars who are either
interested in the art world or in the modern history of China. The book aims
to lay a foundation for more experts to contemplate these changing factors and
develop further research on the topic. My humble effort could be best described
by the Chinese idiom throwing stones for directions 投石问路.
The book was written with a substantial amount of primary research. Quotes
in the book that do not have footnotes were based on that primary research;
this is especially true for Part I and Part III. I have made extra efforts to include
Chinese alongside the English text for important speeches, policy statements,
and terms because our understanding of these complex terms may change as
xiv Preface and Acknowledgements
time goes by. English is always in front of Chinese for consistency. If you cannot
read Chinese, do not worry, the English translation has been provided. Currency
details have been provided in dollars along with the original currency of meas-
urement. Conversion is roughly done at the conversion rate at the time of the
measurement. Recently exchange rates have been volatile, so there will be some
inconsistencies. When diving into a topic this broad, there are bound to be errors.
The breadth is enormous, and I could have spent the rest of my life adding more
details to this book and still not have been close to being halfway finished. On
balance, the value of bringing the information in this book to readers quickly
and in a timely manner probably outweighs any of the mistakes that were made.
I hope you feel the same.
Due to the nature of the book and the exploration of sensitive topics, several
interviewees preferred to remain anonymous. Their names were replaced with
pseudonyms. I would like to express my deep appreciation to those who were
willing to tell their stories, which has allowed me to share their knowledge and
experience with the world.
Part I of the book is partially based on the Chinese Art Market Report that
I wrote in 2019 for The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF). I would like
to thank the TEFAF team for their support and collaboration, especially Patrick
van Maris (former CEO of TEFAF) who helped strike the match that lit the way
for this multi-year journey. Also, I am appreciative of Paul van den Biesen, Mark
Rosen, and Simone Stunz for their assistance.
This book could not have happened without the support of so many people,
too many to name. During the most difficult time during the pandemic, their
encouragement inspired me to embark on this undertaking and complete the
manuscript. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Diana Newall,
Karine Mandel, Derek Gillman, Marcus Fox, David Norman, Diana Cadwell,
Ye Ying, Wendy Scherr, Virginia Moon, Tye Lidman and Ernie von Simson.
Natalie Foster and Kelly O’Brien from Routledge for believing in this concept
and helping to make this book a reality. Sandra Creaser for her amazing work
copyediting this manuscript.
I want to express my deep appreciation to the artists discussed in the book, par-
ticularly Xu Bing and his studio manager Xu Hong, Li Songsong, Qiu Anxiong,
Lu Yang, Zheng Bo, Qiu Xiaofei, Liang Yuanwei, and Zhang Xiaogang and
his studio manager Jia Qiu. As well as those that were not mentioned including
Zhang Wenchao and Liu Boda. Thank you for all your time and patience.
A number of scholars generously shared their insights when I came to them.
Jeremy Cohen, Joan Lebold Cohen, Jane DeBevoise, Denise Ho, Christine Ho,
and Roxann Prazniak, thank you for your guidance.
I also want to express my deep gratitude to Professor William Goetzmann
for his continuous support of this endeavor and throughout the process and to
Professor Sharon Oster who passed away in June 2022. Without her encourage-
ment, I might not have pursued a career in the arts after moving to the United
States. She will always be the beacon I use to orient my life.
Preface and Acknowledgements xv
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family who glow with opti-
mism and inspire me to do my best, and my husband Noah, who spent countless
hours reviewing my manuscript and sharing his insightful comments. Without
his unwavering support, this book would not have been completed.
2022 has been by no means an ordinary year. With so many significant
events unfolding in front of our eyes, I would like to reference the title of Lionel
Rogosin’s film Good Times, Wonderful Times. For those who have seen this pres-
cient film, you know that the topics Rogosin depicted resonate so well with our
world today. Indeed, by providing a glimpse of history during a crucial period
in modern China, I hope that this book, as a modest endeavor, will help readers
envision a humane future.
Kejia Wu
October, 2022
Notes
1 www.artba s el.com/ s tor i es/ t he- a rt- b asel- a nd- u bs- g lo b al- a rt- m ar k et- r ep o rt-
2022?lang=en.
2 www.gov.cn/zhengce/2021–11/16/content_ 5651269.htm.
ACRONYMS AND NAMES
BCAE Beijing Contemporary Art Expo 北京当代艺术博览会

CAA China Artists Association 中国美术家协会
CAFA Central Academy of Fine Arts 中央美术学院
CCCPC Central Committee of the Communist 中国共产党中央委员会
Party of China
CCP Chinese Communist Party 共产党
CCP Communist Party of China 共产党
CCTV China Central Television 中国中央电视台
CFLAC China Federation of Literary and Art 中国文学艺术界联合会
Circles
CIGE China International Gallery Exhibition 中艺博国际画廊博览会
CLACA China Literature and Art Critics 中国文艺评论家协会
Association
CNAA Chinese National Academy of Arts 中国艺术研究院
CNAF China National Arts Fund 国家艺术基金
CNY Chinese Yuan 人民币
CPC Communist Party of China 共产党
CPPCC The Chinese People’s Political Consultative 中国人民政治协商会议
Conference
DRC Development Research Center of the State 国务院发展研究中心
Council
EMAC East Modern Art Center 远洋艺术中心
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
GFAA Guardian Fine Art Asia 嘉德艺术周
HKD Hong Kong Dollar
HKU University of Hong Kong
HNWI High Net Worth Individuals
LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art
NAMOC The National Art Museum of China 中国美术馆
newgenprepdf
Acronyms and Names xvii
NCCCP National Congress of the Chinese 中国共产党全国代表大会

Communist Party
NCHA National Cultural Heritage Administration 国家文物局
NFT Non-Fungible Token
NMC National Museum of China 中国国家博物馆
NPC National People’s Congress 中华人民共和国全国人民代
表大会
NSL National Security Law (The Law of 中华人民共和国香港特别行
the People’s Republic of China on 政区维护国家安全法
Safeguarding National Security in the
Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region)
NSSF National Social Science Fund of China 国家社会科学基金
OCAT OCT Contemporary Art Terminal OCT当代艺术中心
PRC People’s Republic of China 中华人民共和国
RMB Renminbi 人民币
SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
TEFAF The European Fine Art Foundation
UCCA UCCA Center for Contemporary Art 尤伦斯当代艺术中心
USD United States Dollar
VAT Value-Added Tax
Beijing Hanhai Auction Co. Ltd. 北京翰海拍卖有限公司
Beijing Rongbao Auction House 北京荣宝拍卖有限公司
China Association of Auctioneers 中国拍卖行业协会
China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd. 中国嘉德
Duo Yun Xuan 朵云轩
China Poly Group Corporation Ltd. 中国保利集团公司
Beijing Poly International Auction Co. 北京保利国际拍卖有限公司
Ltd.,
Sungari 中商盛佳
PART I
China’s Art Market

A Modern History
1
THE ORIGIN OF CHINA’S ART MARKET
The Untold, Poignant Truths

The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF), operator of one of the largest Old
Masters, Modern and Contemporary art fairs in the world, has been tracking the
development of the global art market for nearly two decades. In 2012, the art
market report published by TEFAF disclosed that “China overtook the U.S. to
become the largest art and antiquities market in the world in 2011, with a share
of 30%.”1 It was presumably the first time that the art market in China attracted
broad international attention. Merely five years prior (2006), the share of the
Chinese art market was only 5% of the global art market.2
How the Chinese art market rose to such prominence so rapidly remains
a mystery to most Western observers. Some commentators believe that the
country’s robust economic growth during the 21st century generated a tremen-
dous amount of personal wealth which contributed to an art-collecting frenzy.
Others, with a slightly more skeptical take, believe that China’s equity market has
performed poorly, and investment diversification is somewhat limited through
strict capital controls. Art and antiquities have therefore become an alternative
investment vehicle for the wealthy. Numerous explanations are plausible, but few
provide a satisfying portrayal of what has happened.
In 2018, I was commissioned by TEFAF to write the Chinese Art Market Report
that would be released in Maastricht, Netherlands, in March 2019. It would be a
report that recounted the metamorphosis of a nonfunctioning art market after the
Cultural Revolution3 (1966–1976) to an art market of international importance
today. At the time of my report, the two top art auction houses in China, Beijing
Poly International Auction and China Guardian Auctions, founded in 2005 and
1993 respectively, had already grown into the third and the fourth-largest auction
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-2
4 China’s Art Market: A Modern History
houses in the world after Christie’s (founded in 1766) and Sotheby’s (founded
in 1744).
It was during these months of research that the topic of post- Cultural
Revolution restitution for artworks gradually emerged through my conversations
with Chinese art experts and collectors. Stories rarely discussed in the past
were shared; questions never mentioned were raised. In China, even today, the
Cultural Revolution is still a sensitive topic that people prefer to avoid. After all,
any discussion about the Cultural Revolution will inevitably touch on the incon-
ceivable sufferings and human barbarity from that tumultuous decade. Like my
parents who experienced this period, most people do not want to mention what
happened, let alone relive the stories in great detail. This lack of information-
sharing has resulted in the media and art critics enthusiastically writing about the
miraculous rise of the Chinese art market, without closely examining how such
a “fairytale” could have happened in the first place.
This chapter rolls back the clock and revisits the period when post-Cultural
Revolution restitution was actively pursued by the state and depicts the recent
history that laid the foundation for the rebirth of the art market and art auctions
in particular.
From the outside, the art market appears robust and destined for further
growth. However, without a profound ref lection on these poignant truths and
the associated history, we will never gain a firm grasp of the fundamental trans-
formation of the Chinese art market and how it has been shaped by the polit-
ical and societal changes in the country. Many stories in this chapter, told by
art professionals and collectors, have never been shared with the public before,
and for them, there has been good reason to not share these stories. But without
understanding the past, how can we prepare for the future?
Tianjin, 1984, a National Political Order on Post-Cultural

Revolution Restitution
The most difficult part of the restitution of artworks (after the Cultural
Revolution), surprisingly, was that my staff at the restitution department
were reluctant to return the artworks to the original owners... I had to
make an extraordinary amount of effort to convince them that this was the
right thing to do and was the only way that our country could correct the
political mistakes made during that chaotic decade.
Wang Xiao
Eight years after the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, Wang Xiao4 was
appointed as a senior executive of the state-owned Tianjin Antiquities Shop,
where the focus of her responsibilities was to oversee the restitution of art and
antiquities confiscated by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
It was a daunting task. Tianjin is the largest urban city adjacent to the capital
of China, Beijing, and has had a long history of collecting art and antiques.
The Origin of China’s Art Market 5
The number of artworks confiscated by the Red Guards in Tianjin during the
Cultural Revolution was astronomical. Works of art were scattered throughout
various government-supervised locations in the city. Often their records were
poorly constructed: either the sources of where the artworks seized were not
marked or the descriptions of the artworks on the checklists were vague.
Starting in 1978, the Central Government in China decided to correct the
political mistakes made during the Cultural Revolution.5 To restitute personal
properties, artworks and antiquities confiscated by the Red Guards when they
conducted house-ransacks and atrocities6 against the people from the Five Black
Categories,7 was part of the effort to remedy the damages imposed on tens of
millions of households.8 However, the progress had been slow.
To speed up the national restitution endeavor, in June 1984 the United Front
Work Department of the Central Committee and the Party Group of the National
Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference issued the
Opinions on Properly Handling the Issues Remaining in the Confiscated Property of the
Cultural Revolution.9 The document, which was subsequently distributed across
the country through the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China (CPC), detailed the outstanding challenges that the restitution work
faced. Based on an investigation conducted by the United Front Work Department
and the Party Group of the National Committee of the Political Consultative
Conference in 1983, a significant number of properties (including artworks and
antiquities) were still piled up in government-supervised storage facilities with little
restitution effort made by local officials, even on those occasions when they were
fully aware of to whom the properties should have been returned. In some instances,
high-valued works were simply “taken home” by the officials who oversaw the res-
titution work or “purchased” by them at a low price.10 The Opinion pointed out:
Solving the outstanding problems on property confiscated during the

Cultural Revolution is a serious political task, and we must attach great
importance to it ideologically. This is related to the protection of citizens’
legal property ownership stated by our Constitution, the prestige and cred-
ibility of the (Communist) Party and the government, the political inf lu-
ence at home and abroad, and the fundamental improvement of the Party’s
disciplines and the country’s social environment.
The document urged that nationwide restitution be completed by the end

of 1984. In hindsight, it turned out to be an objective that was too ambitious
to achieve within the tight timetable. On the other hand, it demonstrated the
Central Government’s eagerness and determination to solve the restitution issues
and put the country back on track after the Cultural Revolution.
The Opinion provided a set of guidelines on how to solve the challenges during
implementation. The guidelines included reinforcing education of the staff who
worked in the restitution departments so that they would try their best to gather
information and conduct research to return the properties to the original owners.
For the properties completely lost or damaged, as long as the owners could pro-
vide evidence that the loss or the damage was caused during a house-ransack by
the Red Guards, the restitution departments would offer an appropriate amount
of compensation. As far as the amount of the compensation was concerned, for
properties that had a market price, the owner would be compensated with 1/3 or
1/4 of the market price. For paintings, calligraphies or antiques, which were hard
to provide a valuation for,11 the amount of compensation was to be negotiated
between the restitution departments and the owners.
In July 1984, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee’s
Policy Implementation Group held a dedicated conference to emphasize the
urgency of restitution after the Cultural Revolution.12 It was spearheaded by
the Central Secretariat of the CCP, Xi Zhongxun, father of the current General
Secretary, Xi Jinping. The conference reinforced the necessity to open the
storage facilities and return the properties confiscated by the Red Guards to
the families of the victims. The conference also offered instructions on how to
provide financial compensation to the families whose looted works could not be
identified or restituted.
Wang Xiao’s appointment to the state- owned Tianjin Antiquities Shop13
in 1984, was announced when the arts and culture bureaus across China were
rushing to meet the political goal of restitution.14 An experienced art expert in
her early thirties with an archeology background, Wang Xiao established a repu-
tation for having the determination and competence to transform the organiza-
tion and for getting things done.
The restitution work turned out to be extremely time-consuming, taking
significantly more effort than she originally expected. Almost four decades later,
when she ref lected on those intensive years, she said:
The most difficult part of the restitution of artworks, surprisingly, was that
my staff at the restitution department were reluctant to return the artworks
to the original owners, a word called XiTui 惜退. I had to make an extra-
ordinary amount of effort to convince them that this was the right thing to
do and was the only way our country could correct the political mistakes
made during that chaotic decade.
“They had the XiTui behavior, because they genuinely believed that the
artworks were owned by the state and needed to be looked after by the state, and
therefore should not be given back to those families,” Wang Xiao said. The work
to persuade and inspire others was difficult. “I had to reinforce that this is an
opportunity for the government to redeem itself and repair the wrongdoings of the
Cultural Revolution.”
Such a XiTui mentality might seem unimaginable today, but from the imme-
diate post-Cultural Revolution period of the late 1970s to the early 1980s, it was
not an uncommon opinion in China. In February 1979, the Research Department
of the United Front Work Department of the CCP Central Committee published
a commentary in People’s Daily, one of the leading state-owned newspapers, titled

How to Correctly Understand and Conscientiously Implement the Party’s Policy Towards
the National Bourgeoisies. An important message that the Op-Ed tried to address
was to persuade the public that to restitute the money and the assets confiscated
from “the national Bourgeoisies” during the Cultural Revolution was by no
means a rightist’s behavior. Rather, it
will be beneficial to the development of a stable and united political situ-

ation and the mobilization of all positive factors to serve the political tasks
of the new period in China; it will be beneficial to the development of the
revolutionary united front and the consolidation of the dictatorship of the
proletariat and will have a significant political impact at home and abroad.15
Those families who had important art collections and whose artworks were
confiscated were mostly wealthy and prominent families back in the Republican
Era (1912–1949). After the Communist Party took power in 1949, “the country
entered the socialist historical period of the dictatorship of the proletariats,”16
and the social, political and economic status of many of these collectors’ families
deteriorated.17 When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, they instantly
became the primary targets of the Red Guards’ house-searches and house-ransacks.
According to a report18 in 2013 published by China’s state-run news agency,
Xinhua, in August 1966, when The Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central
Committee of the CPC officially approved the “Decision to start the Cultural
Revolution,” within 20 days, over 300,000 young Red Guards in Beijing, who had
been received by Chairman Mao, ransacked over 100,000 households in the city,
confiscating, burning and destroying countless artworks and antiquities in these
families’ private collections. Soon after, the political campaign rolled to Shanghai,
Tianjin and the rest of the country. The Red Guards in the other parts of China
considered what the Red Guards in Beijing had “accomplished” in August as a role
model for them to emulate. Based on a comment made by the Prime Minister at
the time, Zhou Enlai, over 100,000 households of the “capitalists” in Shanghai and
around 10 million households nationwide were ransacked in the early stages of the
Cultural Revolution.
When the artworks from the collectors’ families were seized, the records
created by the Red Guards, if there were any, often lacked specific description,
i.e., a record could simply be marked as “a painting by Zhang Daqian.”19 For
Wang Xiao and her restitution team, when faced with the tremendous number
of artworks in storage, it was a daunting challenge to decide which artworks
should be returned to which families. In the early 1980s, the family members
who came forward to make claims for restitution were largely the children of the
collectors who were targets of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution,
and many of their parents had passed away. The younger generation often had
little knowledge of the artworks confiscated, a situation that had caused a consid-
erable number of disputes during the restitution process. “It was certainly not a
scientific process. Due to the lack of detailed records of the properties in storage
and the limited knowledge the offspring of the original collectors had, the resti-
tution work was really tough.”
During the three-year period from 1984 to 1986, Wang Xiao’s team restituted
over 300,000 artworks and antiquities. Recalling those years, she was proud that
the speed of restitution significantly increased once she took a leadership role in
the organization. A public announcement that encouraged the families to come
forward for restitution claims was broadly advertised in the local newspapers in
Tianjin. As a result, people who wanted to get their properties back formed a
long line in front of the antiquities shop to claim their artworks.
On the one hand, there was a top-down order from the Central Government
and the municipal government to complete the restitution within a short
period of time. On the other hand, the records of the confiscated works
were either extremely deficient or sloppy. To solve this dilemma, we
developed a two-principle solution.
First for Chinese paintings, if the calligraphy on the paintings clearly stated to
whom the painting was addressed as a gift and if the claimant could provide evi-
dence that he/she was from the family of the recipient, then the painting would
be returned to the claimant. The second principle was called “Replacement of
Similar Works”: for example if the claimer wanted to restitute a hanging scroll of
f lower-and-bird by Qi Baishi 20 but the restitution department could not find the
painting that matched the description, then the staff would select a painting by
Qi Baishi with a similar subject matter and hand it over to the family.
In many instances it was impossible to know whether the right artworks

were restituted, but the dominating belief at the time was that in aggre-
gate, we (the Government) had to return as many artworks looted during
the Cultural Revolution as we could. Errors such as the wrong paintings
returned to the wrong families were trivial problems: the most crucial part
was the activity of returning. Restitution (of a group of artworks) with
accuracy was nearly impossible.
Another hurdle for the restitution effort was for the claimants to provide evi-
dence that they were the rightful owners of the artworks and that the works were
confiscated by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Wang Xiao’s
restitution team required that the claimants show a tangible “receipt,” a piece
of paper written by the Red Guards after they ransacked a house, with a list and
description of the properties confiscated. “Otherwise, how could we know if
these claimants were being honest?”
This rule, from the perspective of the government-r un restitution team, was
necessary to prevent any fraudulent behavior. However, for many collectors,
the requirement was an insurmountable barrier to overcome in their restitution
endeavor. During the Cultural Revolution, house-ransack and property seizures

were usually violent acts without any receipts created. Worse, very few of the
young Red Guards who conducted house-searches and ransacks had knowledge
of art and antiquities. “As you can imagine, lots of the families who suffered
during the confiscation did not even bother coming forward, due to the lack of
a ‘receipt’ or evidence to prove the looting.”
Although 300,000 seems like a large number for art restitution for a city
over three years, compared with the considerable number of artworks sitting in
storage that should have been returned but could not be restituted due to the lack
of receipts, “it was only the tip of the iceberg.”
According to a report by the Chinese newspaper Northern Weekend 21 in 2012,
by the end of 1984, out of the 11 million 22 artworks and antiquities confiscated
in China during the Cultural Revolution, only 3.5 million were restituted; out
of the 12 million books and manuscripts confiscated, only 2.64 million were
restituted. The majority of the remaining works were lost or could not be
restituted because the original owners could not be identified.
Collectors and Lawsuits

What Wang Xiao accomplished as the head of the state-owned antiquities shops
in the mid-1980s was an achievement that she still deeply cherishes today. This
profound sense of responsibility and urgency of correcting the wrongdoings of
the Cultural Revolution was the driving force of the restitution effort throughout
China at the time, from the Central Government to the local municipal bureaus.
The late 1980s to the early 1990s, however, marked a turning point in the
national restitution effort. With the peak of the government-d riven restitution
push completed, most of the restitution offices gradually dissolved. Subsequently,
records that documented restitution cases have been strictly guarded at the
archive centers of the municipal governments and are not allowed to be reviewed
by individuals.23 Outstanding issues and disputes have since been left to be sorted
out by civilians on their own, or via negotiations, case by case, through the local
cultural bureaus or other government agencies.
Some collectors’ families decided to forgo any restitution claims because it
would only bring back their tormented memories. Others, after making numerous
attempts with less-than-satisfying results, chose to remain silent. Occasionally,
lawsuits were filed by the offspring of collectors who were once the towering
figures of China’s modern history. A plausible explanation of this phenomenon
is that in China there has never been a law, legal procedure, or framework for
the restitution of artworks confiscated during the Cultural Revolution. All these
restitution attempts, regardless of their magnitude, have always been based on
government-issued policy statements.24 In an environment where the past policy
statements became obsolete25 and where there is no law of restitution to rely on,
the chance for a layman to successfully file and triumph in a restitution lawsuit is
somewhere between slim and none.
Shanghai, 1983, a Letter from the Local Cultural Bureau

Hannah’s26 grandfather was an established banker and an avid art collector during
the Republican Era. Practicing Chinese painting and calligraphy and collecting
artworks had been an important part of his daily life. After the founding of the
People’s Republic of China in 1949, he was labeled a capitalist during the pol-
itical campaigns of the Communist Party and was soon unemployed. When the
Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, a grandson of a family member acci-
dentally disclosed to the local authorities that he had a large number of foreign
books and an art collection. A few days later the Red Guards stormed the house
of Hannah’s grandfather, believing that he hid treasures and anti-communism
books from the state. Multiple house-ransacks took place and he was brutally
struggled against27 and beaten repeatedly by the Red Guards. All the artworks in
his private collection were confiscated.
In 1967, one year after the Cultural Revolution started, Hannah’s grandfather
died. The violent beatings during the relentless struggle sessions by the Red
Guards were too harsh for him to take.
At the time, Hannah’s parents were in Taiwan and then moved to the United
States. Hannah was born in the US in the 1960s. She and her parents were
fortunate to have avoided the tragedy. In the early 1980s, Hannah’s parents
were finally able to travel back to China to visit the family’s residence in
Shanghai. News of their return spread fast. Before long, staff from the local arts
and cultural bureau in Shanghai reached out to her parents. They came to the
house for a visit and returned some artworks confiscated during the Cultural
Revolution: a few Cloisonne bottles and a painting by Zhang Daqian, which
was addressed to her grandfather as a birthday present. Nothing else was given
back. Accompanying the artworks there was a letter from the local cultural
bureau, which stated: “Thank you for your family’s contribution to the State.
Due to the financial distress that the State faces, we have sold the majority of
your family’s artworks in order to fund the national treasury.”
When asked whether any family members in Shanghai were trying to keep
a list or track the whereabouts of the artworks back then, Hannah said: “You
know, at the time, the most critical thing was to stay alive. Nobody cared about
artworks.”
Hannah was certain that many of the valuable paintings her grandfather
collected that were seized during the Cultural Revolution later appeared on the
art market. However, since no form of receipt was created by the Red Guards
during the house-ransacks and nobody at the family kept a record of the artworks
confiscated, any research or restitution effort would be pointless.
Moreover, the message in the letter from the local cultural bureau put a per-
manent lid on all restitution attempts by the family. With most of her grandfather’s
art collection sold by the state to finance the treasury of the country, no more
questions could be asked, no more information on the whereabouts of these
artworks would be disclosed.
The only precious object saved from the house-ransacks in the 1960s was a
baby-doll made in Germany. A family member kept it secretly during the
tumultuous years and his daughter brought it to the US when she came to
study music after the Cultural Revolution.
Beijing, 1966, a House-Ransack by the Red Guards

Nicole28 is an established expert who specialized in mounting Chinese paintings.
Now in her seventies, she migrated to the United States from Beijing decades
ago. She grew up in a large courtyard complex near the Palace Museum in Beijing
which was once owned by her grandfather. It was a colossal residence located in
the most prestigious neighborhood in Beijing where Deng Xiaoping, the General
Secretary of the CCP from 1956 to 196629 who later became China’s leader in
1978, lived close by before he was struggled against and then removed from
his posts during the Cultural Revolution. What Nicole witnessed in September
1966 as a teenager was a life-t ransforming experience.
That summer Nicole was traveling with her friends in the southern part of
China. When she returned to Beijing in the fall, the entire family courtyard
had been confiscated by the Red Guards as a state asset. Different groups of Red
Guards moved into her home and began to live there long-term with her family.
Then multiple rounds of house-searches and ransacks followed. All the valuable
possessions of the family were either destroyed or taken by the Red Guards.
After the Cultural Revolution, a few books and letters were returned to Nicole’s
family, but nothing of substantial monetary value. Her siblings tried numerous
times to restitute the courtyard buildings, but their efforts always ended in vain.
The local bureau in charge of property restitution once offered to compensate the
family with RMB 8,000 (USD 1,200) per square meter for 10% of the courtyard
buildings they once owned; the offer required them to give up the remaining 90%
of the claim. Due to the low price (the current market price for residential prop-
erties in the same neighborhood in Beijing is around RMB 137,000 per square
meter as of 202230) and the loss of claim on the remaining buildings, Nicole and
her siblings refused.31 Today, the dispute is still a pending issue and is unlikely to
be resolved in the foreseeable future. “My parents have both passed away and I am
in my seventies. I don’t have the energy to argue with them about this anymore.”
When recalling the round-a fter-round house-ransacks she experienced during
her teenage years, Nicole said that these violent confrontations always took place
at the whim of the Red Guards.
There were two types of Red Guards: The Red Guards from my parents’
work units and the Red Guards formed by our local community. They
would show up randomly for house-searches and property confiscation.
The Red Guards from the work units were relatively more civilized and
they would sometimes provide you with receipts of the items confiscated.
They knew my parents well and thus were slightly more polite. But the
Red Guards from the local community were reckless and never left any
trace of receipts.
Not surprisingly, often the lack of receipts made the restitution effort for those
properties impossible. “Even for the items confiscated and a receipt provided
by the ‘nicer’ Red Guards, the description on the receipts was so vague that to
look for the corresponding works during the restitution attempt was extremely
difficult.” Nicole cited an example of an old friend, the former Chancellor of
the Central Academy of Arts and Design (which became Tsinghua University’s
Academy of Arts & Design in Beijing in 1999). He was only able to restitute a few
paintings by Qi Baishi out of the hundreds of paintings in his private collection
because the information listed on the receipts was too ambiguous.
What Hannah and Nicole experienced was typical for families who suffered
during the Cultural Revolution: the assets and art collections confiscated
belonged to their grandparents, defined as part of the “Five Black Categories.”
They were the direct victims of the struggle sessions and the house-ransacks.
When the government-led restitution endeavors began in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, these victims had more than often passed away. Their children or
grandchildren rarely knew the details of the properties confiscated. In most cases,
the grandchildren, who are now elderly themselves, lost interest in making fur-
ther restitution pursuits. One reason was their fear to come forward due to their
limited knowledge or lack of proof that the artworks were once owned by their
grandparents. More importantly, the lack of a restitution law in China meant that
any restitution effort through a legal channel would be exceptionally difficult.
In 2012, when the trading activity of the art auction market in China was at
a fever pitch, a couple of legal disputes associated with post-Cultural Revolution
restitution caught the attention of the local press. They were probably the last
lawsuits on the subject to be widely reported by the Chinese media. Since then,
the topic has been rarely mentioned in the public domain. These lawsuits were
unfruitful, much to the surprise of the plaintiffs, nevertheless, they help us under-
stand the immeasurable challenges faced by any attempt at restitution.
Beijing, 2012, a Lawsuit Against the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau

In April 2012, the grandchildren of Fu Zengxiang (1872–1949)—who was once
a Minister of Education (1917–1919) during the Republican Era and one of the
most esteemed collectors during the late Qing Dynasty32 —initiated a lawsuit
against the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau.33 The request was straightforward,
to ask the Bureau to disclose a detailed list of the properties (including numerous
artworks) confiscated from the family during the Cultural Revolution.
When Fu Zengxiang passed away in Beijing in 1949, he left his 1,200-square-
meter courtyard and a significant number of artworks in his private collection to his
children. In 1966 when the Cultural Revolution started, the Red Guards broke into
the house of the Fu family and confiscated the residence and the entire collection
of works of art. All the family members were forced to leave the home. One of the
grandchildren, Fu Yannian, remembered that his grandfather’s art collection had
been located throughout the 66-room courtyard house, with priceless paintings by
renowned painters and other works of art like jade and porcelain. For him, it was no
less than a private museum.
In 2010, over forty years after the house-ransack, the grandchildren of Fu
Zengxiang, then in their sixties, were still trying to retrieve a checklist of
artworks confiscated by the Red Guards in 1966. Over the years, through
various resources, they found out that the checklist was in the possession of the
Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau. The Fu family reached out to the Bureau and
requested to review the list. A retired former staff member at the Bureau who
used to work at the restitution department, Li Jingru, was dispatched by the
Bureau to meet with the family members and reject their request. The reason
was simple: unless the Bureau was granted special government approval, the list
remained confidential at the Bureau and could not be shared.
Enraged by such a response, the Fu family filed a civil lawsuit against the
Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau in the fall of 2011. In April 2012, a hearing
was held at the Beijing Municipal Court. During the hearing, the lawyer for the
Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau stated that even though the Bureau had the
checklist, according to an announcement by the Beijing Municipal Government
in 1988, the information was classified as a national secret and therefore could
not be shared with any civilians.
This announcement, issued on November 9, 1988, was called Notice of the
General Office of the Beijing Municipal Government on the Revocation of Offices at
All Levels that Oversee the Implementation of the Property Restitution. When the
announcement came out, it was barely reported in the press and is no longer avail-
able on the online archive of the website of the Beijing Municipal Government,
where official announcements each year are displayed chronologically for public
viewing. The purpose of the document was to conclude the post- Cultural
Revolution restitution effort in Beijing by revoking the governmental offices
overseeing restitution across different districts, counties, bureaus and universities
in the city. The Notice began by stating that the restitution work was “basically
completed” and that any “remaining issues” with reliable evidence and docu-
mentation would be solved according to “relevant documents of the Central
Government and Beijing Municipal Government.” It peculiarly requested that:
All related work units need to establish a strict security system to guard
the archive of the files on the properties confiscated. To borrow the files
between work units, they must acquire a letter of introduction from
the bureau of a higher level with a signature by the person in charge.
Individuals are not allowed to borrow these files.
The instructions in the announcement were the foundation of the Bureau’s

decision to reject the Fu family’s request. In the end, the family did not win
the lawsuit against the Bureau. In the middle of the hearing, Fu Yannian could
not contain his frustration and burst out with anger: “So your logic is that my
family’s properties were robbed and what they looted from us is a national secret.
We don’t even have the right to know!”
He was immediately silenced by the judge at the court.
The Fu family’s lawsuit against the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau was one
of only a few lawsuits ever initiated by civilians against a government entity in
the arts and culture sector in China. Although their request was declined, the
lawsuit brought to light the important restitution announcement issued by the
Beijing government in 1988, which had hardly been known to the public. This
announcement provided the justification for the government to strictly guard the
restitution archives against any civilian access and to discourage the active indi-
vidual pursuit of restitution from the late 1980s and onward.
Beijing, 2012, Zhou Yiji’s Restitution Request against China Guardian

Auction House
Following the Fu family’s lawsuit against the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau, a
lawsuit filed against the China Guardian auction house triggered a debate around
the legitimacy of the public trading of unrestituted works of art. In particular,
when an unrestituted artwork “mysteriously” appeared on the art auction market
and when the original owner reached out to an auction house for a restitution
request, how should an auction house react? More importantly, what rights does
the original owner have under the existing legal framework in China?
Zhou Jiyi, former Deputy Director of the Museum of Modern Chinese
Literature and the grandson of Zhou Zuoren (1885–1967)—a celebrated writer
and brother of Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren) (1881–1936), who was once applauded by
Chairman Mao as “the pioneer of China’s national liberation” and “the premier
saint in China”34 —tried to convince China Guardian to withdraw the auction
of a manuscript written by his grandfather.
The manuscript The Development of Japanese Novels over the Past Thirty Years was
written by Zhou Zuoren in 1922 and included remarks by Lu Xun throughout the
pages.35 According to Zhou Jiyi, the manuscript was in the possession of his family
until August 1966, when the Red Guards stormed into the family residence and
seized their properties. Zhou Jiyi clearly recalled having seen the manuscript at home
before the Cultural Revolution,“it has about 10,000 words and a few dozen pages.”36
After the Cultural Revolution, only a portion of the family’s properties was restituted
to the Zhou family, which did not include the manuscript. Until the news of China
Guardian’s auction of the work came out in May 2012, Zhou Jiyi, then 63 years old,
had no clue of the whereabouts of the manuscript for nearly five decades.
Given the prestige of the Zhou family in China’s modern history, the manu-
script was indisputably perceived as a cultural treasure. Its pre-auction estimate
offered by China Guardian was a hefty RMB 700,000 (USD 108,000).
As a standard practice, before a public art auction takes place, information on

the lots to be sold is publicized and public previews are held to attract poten-
tial buyers. Zhou Yiji was excited to learn that the manuscript re-emerged.
He wanted it to be returned to the family. Initially, he reached out to China
Guardian and requested that the manuscript be withdrawn from the auction so
that it could be restituted. His demand was declined.
During the three days of public viewing before the auction, Zhou Yiji tried
multiple channels to contact China Guardian again, through his lawyer, the
local police, the local court and the local government agencies, asking for resti-
tution of the manuscript. All his efforts were futile. China Guardian went ahead
with the auction of the manuscript, ignoring Zhou Yiji’s plea. It was sold to an
undisclosed buyer at RMB 1.84 million (USD 284,000), over twice the pre-sale
estimate.
A year after the auction took place, Zhou Yiji filed a lawsuit against China
Guardian37 at Beijing Dongcheng District Court, hoping to annul the auction
result and have the manuscript returned to his family. After four months of
research, the Court decided that the lawsuit was inadmissible.
According to China’s Auction Administrative Regulation, if there is any dispute
around the ownership of a work of art before the government judicial or admin-
istrative agencies make a final decision on the ownership, the property should
not be auctioned.
In this particular case, China Guardian’s lawyer counterargued that due to
the lack of a receipt by the Red Guards after the house-ransack, which would be
necessary to prove the Zhou family’s ownership of the manuscript, the auction
house decided not to withdraw the lot and proceeded with the auction. During
the process of the lawsuit, Zhou Yiji also discovered that although the Auction
Law in China requires that auction houses conduct provenance due diligence
of artworks to ensure that the consignors have the legal right to the owner-
ship, such provenance due diligence was often poorly done, and auction houses
only asked the consignors to sign an agreement to guarantee that they were the
rightful owners of the artworks and would be responsible for any unexpected
consequences.
Zhou Jiyi’s lawsuit against China Guardian unveiled the complex issue of
artworks that were confiscated but not restituted and circulating in the art
market. In more established art markets like the US and Europe, auction houses
abide by restitution laws and regulations on artworks circulating during turbu-
lent times (e.g., WWII or the Colonial Period). Not only do Western auction
houses often have dedicated legal teams who work on provenance and restitution
research, but once an artwork offered at an auction is heavily contested by a res-
titution claim, auction houses often withdraw it from the sale and subsequently
seek a solution with the claimant. In the art market in China however, not only
does a restitution law not exist, but restitution claims against an auction house
like Zhou Jiyi’s barely ever happen, due to the collectors’ families’ unwilling-
ness to attempt to combat the large institutions or the state. The risk of adverse
consequences to their other interests or the realization that families do not have
the resources to challenge an institution like a leading auction house or the gov-
ernment, generally makes a restitution claim an exercise in futility.
In October 2012, an independent columnist and art market observer, Ma
Jidong, wrote an essay in his online column at Sohu.com and ref lected on the
contrasting restitution issues at auction houses in China versus overseas.38 He
cited the example of how The Potomack Company in Virginia, US, with-
drew a Renoir painting from its auction in September of that year, once it was
discovered that the painting might have been stolen from the Baltimore Museum
of Art in 1951.39 His essay discussed the result that Zhou Jiyi’s restitution claim
experienced and concluded that the infrastructure of the art auction industry in
China, when compared with its Western counterparts, “was far from mature, and
the (auction) laws needed to be improved.” For instance, the problematic terms
in China’s Auction Law, he pointed out, included “if the consignors require
that their identities stay confidential, then the auction houses shall abide by the
request” and “it is up to the consignors to decide whether an artwork is to be
withdrawn from the sale before an auction takes place.” “This means that as long
as the consignor refuses to withdraw, then the auction house has the responsi-
bility to go ahead with the auction, unless the artwork is forcibly removed by the
state cultural relics bureaus or customs authorities.”
Early in 2014, in an essay40 published in Lanzhou Evening News that summarized
his experience of the lawsuit, Zhou Yiji expressed his deep frustration when
confronting a powerful auction house in China using the existing legal procedures.
He also pointed out that the rapid growth of the Chinese art market has benefited
from the “ ‘relaxed’ business environment in the country.” In particular, due dili-
gence and provenance research is often too difficult for an auction house to con-
duct. Even when an artwork is supposed to be restituted, the legal environment is
not friendly for an average citizen to claim his/her rightful ownership.
Zhou Yiji continued with a couple of appeals at the local court regarding the
restitution of the Manuscript from 2012 to 2017, which turned out to be a futile
effort. In June 2017, he filed another lawsuit against China Guardian, which was
planning to sell a Chinese seal that used to be owned by his grandfather.41 Similar
to the previous case, it was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution and never
returned to the family. This time, the Dongcheng District Court in Beijing issued
an order to prevent the seal from being sold at auction. Nevertheless, China
Guardian refused to have the seal restituted to the Zhou family, because “it
belongs to the consignor and the auction house does not have the right to return
the object to the plaintiff.”42
In an interview with Law and Life magazine43 in 2017, Associate Researcher
Xiong Bingwan of the Civil and Commercial Law Science Research Center at
Renmin University of China, commented on the two lawsuits by Zhou Yiji. He
said that due to the issues around post-Cultural Revolution restitution which are
“unsolved historical problems,” such artworks involved are not protected by the
Property Law in China and therefore cannot be treated as “lost properties.” “For
controversies around the ‘unsolved historical problems’ ”, he said:
The current owner of the object should be presumed to be the legitimate

owner of the property. After all, the law cannot require the current owner
to prove the legitimacy of the provenance by himself/herself…unless the
heir of the original owner can demonstrate the evidence that the current
owner obtained the objects by illegal means.
What Zhou Yiji implied in his 2014 essay has been a question for numerous
collector’s families who suffered during the Cultural Revolution and never had
their full art collections restituted: where did the unreturned objects go? Had
they been circulating in the open art market without their knowledge?
In his memoir When History Can Be Watched published by Guangxi Normal
University Press in 2013, Feng Keli, former Chief Editor of Old Photographs,
a bimonthly publication published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House,
discussed his experience sourcing old photographs to be published in the
magazine.44 The memoir mentioned that an enormous number of vintage
photographs, which had been in private collections, were confiscated during the
Cultural Revolution but were never restituted. Later they appeared at various
f lea markets and subsequently circulated at different art auctions. This was one
of the few formal firsthand writings on the subject which documented the
fact that unrestituted objects “mysteriously” appeared and traded at auctions
in China.
Due to the lack of transparency in disclosing information in this field, we may
never have enough documentation to construct a reliable database to accurately
track these objects.
Fast forward to the present. According to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art
Market Report published in March 2022,45 China is once again the largest art
auction market in the world in 2021,46 with a market share higher than the US
and the UK by trading values. Despite the top global ranking, art auctions in China
are still a young concept. A domestic Chinese art auction house did not exist until
1992, whereas the largest international players: Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips and
Bonhams, were all founded in the 18th century. The second half of this chapter,
by going through the history of how art auctions started in China, will explain
how art auctions were able to grow so quickly after the dramatic nationalization
of personal wealth and private art collections during the Cultural Revolution and
the re-allocation of artworks and antiquities during the post-Cultural Revolution
restitution process.
Specifically, this next section of the chapter will examine the period from
the 1970s to the early 1990s and reveal how a certain level of restitution made
by the state in the immediate years following the Cultural Revolution laid the
foundation for incubating the art market in China. The considerable number of
artworks, which had been confiscated from private collectors during the Cultural
Revolution and later became available for circulation, provided a large volume of
supply, which allowed the market to f lourish once the right political and economic
environment emerged.
The State-Owned Antiquities Shops

To trace the origin of the Chinese art market after the founding of the People’s
Republic of China, we need to brief ly ref lect on the modern history of art
collecting in the country. It has been widely recognized that China has a long
history of collecting and connoisseurship of paintings and works of art, from the
imperial courts47 to the elite aristocratic society.48 As Craig Clunas, Professor
Emeritus of the History of Art, University of Oxford, commented in his book,
Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China:
From the middle of the sixteenth century the “enjoyment of antiquities”

shifted its role from being a personal predilection, one of a number of
potential types of privileged cultural activity, to being an essential form of
consumption which was central to the maintenance of elite status. In the
late Ming and Qing periods it was no longer acceptable not to be a “lover
of antiquity.”49
This “manner of possessing” would be likely to assume even greater sig-

nificance in a context where the desired treasures were available to all
those possessed of sufficient economic power, through the workings of the
well-developed art and antiques market.50
After the downfall of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), which concluded China’s
imperial history, and during the Republican Era, art collecting and trading
among individual connoisseurs and elites continued to be active, particularly in
metropolitan centers like Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.51 Prominent collectors,
because of their exceptional skills of authentication, often acted as dealers and
traded art objects.52
After the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China in
1949, the political and social environment took a drastic turn. Private art trades
between individual collectors and dealers were considered by the Party as a dis-
ruption to the state’s “attempts to extend control through the socialist trans-
formation of the art market and political campaigns which targeted collectors
and traders.”53 In 1956, the Central Government officially forbade any art trade
among individuals and private businesses.54 Instead, the state-owned antiqui-
ties shops, under the Central Government’s supervision and instruction, began
to implement the state’s monopoly on the purchase and circulation of art and
artifacts. From that point to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966,
art trades in the private market significantly dwindled. Some collectors “were
punished for the economic crimes of illegal trade in paintings and tax evasion on
their profit.”55 For them as the victims of the state’s “political campaign with an
economic target,” their punishment included imprisonment and fines. Despite
the strict state control, individual art collecting and trading still persevered,56
though at a much-d iminished scale among collectors’ private circles. With the
outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, these private collecting and trading
activities came to a halt.
In the 1950s, China’s leading trading partner was the USSR (the PRC would
not establish a diplomatic relationship with the United States until 1979). In
1955 the USSR accounted for over 55% of the PRC’s foreign trade,57 followed
by Eastern European countries. Because of the Korean War, trade embargos
with China were imposed by many Western nations.58 In the 1960s, due to con-
f lict between the USSR and China, the Soviet Union withdrew its technical
aid to China. As a result, the Chinese government began to develop trading
relationships with other countries, such as Japan and some Western European
nations. At that time, however, the volume of China’s international trade was
quite low. In the mid-1960s, the total annual value of exports was slightly over
USD 2 billion. (In contrast, China’s exports in 2021 were valued at USD 3.5
trillion.59)
In this challenging political and economic environment, China’s state-owned
antiquities shops played a critical role in acquiring valuable artworks from the
general public and then selling them to Western visitors to help generate foreign
currency reserves for the state. In the 1960s, Premier Zhou Enlai announced the
guideline for these antiquities shops as: “limited sales to generate a high return
of foreign currency, carefully sell over the long term” 少出高汇, 细水长流. The
premier was instructing the antiquities shops to sell antiquities to foreigners in a
slow, careful, responsible manner, managing and maintaining inventory over a
long period, in order to help collect foreign currency for the state.
In 1966, with the start of the Cultural Revolution, trading activities by state-
owned antiquities shops were suspended. In 1972, four years before the end of the
Cultural Revolution, Richard Nixon announced his plan to spend one week in
Beijing, which triggered the process of normalizing diplomatic relations between
the People’s Republic of China and the United States. Soon after, the state-owned
antiquities shops were instructed by the Central Government to display Chinese
classical paintings on their walls and to sell ancient art and artifacts to Western
visitors.
Duo Yun Xuan, from a State-Owned Antiquities Shop to the First

Auction House in China
From the end of the Cultural Revolution to the early 1990s and the launch of
the first art auction house Duo Yun Xuan in 1993, the art trade in China was
still controlled by the government as part of its planned economy, with the state-
owned antiquities shops acting as the only authorized organizations to participate
in art commerce.
Zhang Rongde, Senior Vice President and Senior Specialist of the Chinese
Classical Paintings Department at Sotheby’s, began his career at the state-owned
antiquities shop Duo Yun Xuan in Shanghai in 1977, after completing his high-
school education in 1976. He worked for Duo Yun Xuan for ten years, before
pursuing university studies in Japan in 1987. At Duo Yun Xuan, his responsibil-
ities included sourcing (acquiring) Chinese antiquities from the public and selling
the artworks to the national museums, Western visitors, and a limited number of
domestic individuals based on the guidelines provided by the government. After
the Cultural Revolution, the Central Government started to restitute personal
properties confiscated during the turbulent decade. Among these properties
were a large number of valuable Chinese artworks and artifacts. In Shanghai, the
restitution was overseen by the Cultural Relics Distribution Division 文物清理
处 of the local Cultural Relics Management Commission 文管会.
Sourcing artworks from the public was one of the main services offered by
the state-owned antiquities stores. Many individuals, after their pre-Cultural
Revolution art collections were restituted, brought their artworks to these stores
and sold them to generate supplemental income.
Part of Rongde’s daily job was to examine the condition of the artworks
delivered by these collectors, provide a valuation under the guidelines of the
antiquities store, and acquire works based on the guiding valuation. Often,
Chinese paintings and works of art were purchased at very low prices. For
example, 100 couplets by the renowned Chinese modern painter Wu Hufan were
acquired by Duo Yun Xuan for slightly over USD 125. According to the current
market value, the estimate of a typical Wu Hufan couplet (a single couplet) would
range from USD 37,000 to USD 73,000.60
At the time, the state-owned antiquities stores were the only places where indi-
vidual collectors could sell their artworks and most of them were in great need
of cash. The volume of acquisitions made by state-owned antiquities stores on
an annual basis was significant. As Rongde recalled, in the category of Chinese
paintings alone, the average number of artworks acquired by Duo Yun Xuan
during his tenure was, even at a low estimate, tens of thousands of pieces each
year. Sometimes, for example, they were able to acquire over a hundred paintings
from a single collector.
The sourcing business not only enabled the antiquities shops to accumulate
a substantial level of high-quality inventory but also trained a group of experts
like Rongde, who became experienced specialists and authenticators through
the examination of a considerable number of Chinese artworks on a daily basis.
At the end of the 1970s, in addition to meeting customers during the day who
wanted to sell paintings to Duo Yun Xuan, Rongde lived inside the store in 1978
and 1979, so that he could carefully inspect the paintings in the storeroom at
night, in order to build up his knowledge to become a true connoisseur.
The sales of the artworks by the state-owned antiquities stores at the time
followed the guideline of “limited sales to generate a high return of foreign cur-
rency, carefully sell over the long term” 少出高汇, 细水长流. The priority was to
earn foreign currency reserves for the state by selling high-quality paintings and
works of art to Western visitors. In addition, experts from the national museums
would visit the antiquities stores on a regular basis and acquire works to expand
the museums’ collections at a low cost. For instance, in 1986, Shanghai Museum
acquired over 100 pieces of the best Chinese classical paintings from the Yuan,
Ming, and Qing dynasties for slightly over USD 20,000 in total.61 Once in a
while, a limited number of domestic collectors (mostly artists, college professors
and retired cadres) who earned relatively higher salaries, came to the stores to
buy a few artworks.
The stores had a price discrimination strategy for different types of collectors:
Whereas Western visitors were taken to an “International Guest Reception
Room” 外宾接待室 to purchase higher-quality artworks sold at higher prices to
generate foreign currency, domestic buyers could only purchase at the “Internal
Counter” 内柜 at much lower prices. For example, the artworks offered at the
International Guest Reception Room could be sold for up to USD 10,000, while
the artworks sold at the Internal Counter were mostly no more than USD 100.
Domestic collectors were not allowed to visit the International Guest Reception
Room or acquire artworks displayed there.
For Chinese paintings and works of art that were permitted to be sold to
Western visitors, the state-owned antiquities stores had to abide by two major
regulations: the Standard for Cultural Relics Export and Appraisal issued by the State
Administration of Cultural Heritage as well as the Reference for Relics Export and
Appraisal issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Trade,
both issued in 1960. According to the Standard and the Reference, any ancient
Chinese painting or work of art created before 1795 (the 60th year of Emperor
Qianlong in the Qing dynasty) was forbidden from export. In addition, modern
Chinese works of art produced before 1911 and modern Chinese ink paintings
created before 1949 were also not allowed to be exported.62,63
To ensure that these regulations were strictly implemented, when the
artworks were selected by the antiquities stores to sell in their International
Guest Reception Room, the stores had to submit lists of these works to the local
Cultural Relics Management Commission for approval. After receiving the lists,
the officials from the Commission would come to the stores in person to inspect
the artworks. Once they approved the works to be sold to Western visitors they
would stamp wax seals on the artworks. Only those works that carried the stamps
could be taken by Western buyers out of the country after purchase.
In terms of circulation, the highest quality artworks held by these antiqui-
ties’ shops were sold to state-owned museums, like the Palace Museum and the
Shanghai Museum, at low prices to enrich their permanent collections, followed
by other high-quality paintings and works of art sold to international collectors
at relatively higher prices, in order to earn foreign currency reserves for the
country. Most international buyers came from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and
Taiwan. It was not uncommon that these buyers would acquire artworks from
antiquities shops in China and then resell them at much higher prices through
auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in Hong Kong, which was a British colony
until 1997.
These state-owned antiquities shops dominated the supply of artworks. In
addition to selling a small portion of their inventories to the national museums, a
large quantity was sold to Western visitors. The purpose of their trading activities
was not to create the maximum profit, but rather to follow the government pol-
icies on the distribution of artworks. As public servants, the employees’ salaries
were not associated with the sales results, and they did not have the incentive to
expand the volume of business of the shops.
Nevertheless, after the decade-long suspension of the art trade during the
Cultural Revolution, art and artifacts began to circulate again, even though the
state-owned antiquities shops were the only legally authorized agents to conduct
the business. Judging from the Central Government’s investigation64 on progress
of the post-Cultural Revolution restitution in 1983 and the local cultural bureau’s
letter 65 to Hannah’s parents, it is possible that the late 1970s to the 1980s was also
a period when a substantial number of unrestituted artworks were taken from
the government-supervised storage facilities and sold to state-owned antiquities
shops. In some cases, like what was discovered by the investigation, the acts were
the result of the restitution officials’ negligence and corruption. In other cases, like
the message conveyed in the letter to Hannah’s parents, it was a decision made
by the state to enrich the treasury through the liquidation of the artworks via the
state-owned antiquities shops.
During this period, local Chinese collectors were extremely limited in their
ability to acquire artworks and antiquities. Most likely, three major factors
restricted the Chinese collectors’ access: First, the preferential policies encouraged
sales of the highest-quality works of art to the state museums to expand their
collections. Second, the preferential policies urged sales to international visitors
to generate foreign reserves for the state. Third, there was limited Chinese
household disposable income.
The average annual wage in Chinese urban cities in 1983 was approximately
RMB 526 (USD 260)66 or 72 cents a day.67 To put this amount in perspective,
in 2021, the average annual disposable income in urban cities was more than 90
times that amount.68 For most people during the 1980s, collecting works of art
was financially out of their reach.
The real starting point for the PRC’s art market took shape during the
early 1990s. At the beginning of 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s tour
to Southern China encouraged many entrepreneurs to embrace a more open
mindset toward the market economy.
In 1991, Zhu Junbo became the General Manager of Duo Yun Xuan antiqui-
ties store, after he had worked for the organization for almost 20 years. As a
veteran of the antiquities store, after the Cultural Revolution, he witnessed
many occasions when dealers or collectors from Hong Kong or Taiwan acquired
artworks from Duo Yun Xuan and then sold them for much higher prices at
auction in Hong Kong, profiting from the arbitrage. For instance, in 1987, a set
of four hanging scrolls by the acclaimed modern Chinese painter Zhang Daqian
was acquired by a Hong Kong collector for over USD 21,000 from Duo Yun
Xuan and subsequently sold at an auction in Hong Kong for over USD 112,000.
In 1991, when Zhu Junbo was promoted to the General Manager of the
antiquities store, his past experience of observing arbitrage encouraged him to
explore new ways to earn revenues for the store. In the same year, impressed by
the high quality of Chinese paintings in Duo Yun Xuan’s inventory, Hong Kong
Wing Sing Fine Arts Auctioneers approached and convinced Zhu to hold a joint
auction in Hong Kong.
On April 26, 1992, Duo Yun Xuan, in partnership with Hong Kong Wing
Sing Fine Arts Auctioneers, held its first auction in Hong Kong. While in
Hong Kong for the auction, Zhu Junbo visited Sotheby’s and Christie’s and was
overwhelmed by the international houses’ professionalism and also by the much
higher prices achieved at their auctions (e.g., a painting by Zhang Daqian sold for
over USD 1 million). After the trip to Hong Kong, he decided to establish the
first art auction house in mainland China to learn from Sotheby’s and Christie’s
success and to fully capture the potential of the domestic art market.
On August 21, 1992, Shanghai Duo Yun Xuan Auctioneer Co. Ltd. was
registered. In January 1993, the Cultural Relics Management Commission in
Shanghai issued permission for Shanghai Duo Yun Xuan Auctioneer Co. Ltd. to
sell cultural relics (Chinese antiquities) through its auctions. This gave the offi-
cial green light to Zhu Junbo to organize the first art auction on June 20, 1993.
Shanghai Duo Yun Xuan Auctioneer Co. Ltd.’s first auction, held on June 20,
1993, was one of the most prominent events for China’s art world that year. Zhu
Junbo and his team spent ten months preparing for the auction. The majority of
the lots came from Duo Yun Xuan antiquities store’s inventory with a portion
sourced from domestic collectors. He invited Robert Chang, the renowned col-
lector from Hong Kong, to act as an advisor who provided guidance on the selec-
tion of artworks, pricing strategy, and design of the catalog.69
While planning this first auction in China, Zhu Junbo had a preliminary
discussion with Christie’s Hong Kong about a potential collaboration, but the
two companies were not able to reach an agreement on a number of terms. For
instance, Christie’s Hong Kong insisted on bringing its auctioneer from Hong
Kong to conduct the sale, but Zhu Junbo wanted to train Duo Yun Xuan’s own
auctioneer in Shanghai. Although the collaboration did not occur, representatives
from Christie’s Hong Kong came to watch the auction and Duo Yun Xuan set up
a desk on-site to display Christie’s sales catalogs.
The auction took place at the Hilton Hotel in Shanghai at 1:30 p.m. A total
of 156 lots of Chinese modern paintings were offered, and more than 120
paddles were registered. Over 70% of the buyers were international collectors
based in Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Robert Chang, Tsai Taihe, and
Chen Dexi. The auction achieved a sell-through rate of 74.5% and a total sale of
HKD 8.3 million (USD 1.07 million). The cover lot, a hanging scroll by Zhang
Daqian, “Watching the Clouds in the Evening Mountains” 晚山看云 was sold
for HKD 1.43 million (USD 185,700), the highest price of any artwork publicly
traded since 1949 when PRC was founded.70
The auctioneer Dai Xiaojing was an assistant to the Chief Editor of Calligraphy
Research magazine, published by Duo Yun Xuan at the time. Zhu Junbo had
recognized Dai’s eloquent Mandarin, a rare language advantage at the com-
pany.71 In early 1993, Zhu informed Dai that he was chosen by Duo Yuan Xuan
as the auctioneer of the company’s first auction, to be held in June that year. To
provide Dai with the training, Duo Yun Xuan decided to send Dai to Hong
Kong to observe the auctions by international auctioneers and learn from them.72
In an interview with the Chinese press The Paper in 2020, Dai recalled that
before the trip to Hong Kong, he had no clue what an auction was and had never
seen an auction. After arriving in Hong Kong, he watched three auctions, by
Sotheby’s, Christie’s and a local auction house in Hong Kong, and learned how
to call out the numbers in increments.73 Almost 30 years later, Dai still vividly
remembered Duo Yun Xuan’s first auction, in June 1993:
I remember that the first auction of Duo Yun Xuan was not only packed,
but even the corridor was filled with people, and many collectors from
mainland China and overseas, as well as the bosses of several major auction
houses in Beijing, came to observe the scene. The auction lasted for 2–3
hours and there were more than 100 pieces of works in the auction. The
first work in the auction was a work by Feng Zikai, “A Red Sun Rising in
the East, I’ll Hold It,” which depicted a group of people looking up to see
a red sun rising. I was very impressed with this work. Since this work has
a very good symbolic meaning, it was chosen as the first lot of the auction.
The size of this work was small, about 1 square foot, but it sold for more
than RMB 100,000, far more than the price of Mr. Feng Zikai’s work,
which could be sold for about RMB 10,000 at that time. The buyer of this
work was Mr. Robert Chang, a collector from Hong Kong.74
After the successful auction results, Zhu Junbo distributed a bonus to his
team. The Deputy General Manager, Cao Xiaodi, received a one-t ime bonus of
RMB 10,000 (USD 1,700), the highest amount in Duo Yun Xuan’s corporate
history. At the time, Zhu Junbo’s monthly salary as General Manager was less
than USD 70.
Although there were a few project-based art and artifact auctions held by
municipal governments in Beijing, Xi’an, and Shenzhen in 1992, Duo Yun
Xuan’s auction in June 1993 marked a watershed moment in the development of
China’s modern art market, because it was held by the first officially registered
art auction house in the country. The auction marked the first time that individ-
uals were able to acquire high-quality works of art through a transparent and fair
bidding system in the open market in the PRC.
From a 30,000-foot perspective, we can see that in the early 1990s, there was a
tremendous volume of art and antiquities that came to market (a significant per-
centage of which were properties confiscated during the Cultural Revolution,
restituted or unrestituted), just as the country was shifting further towards a
market-d riven economy. In this liberated environment for art collecting and
art trade, an extraordinary number of high-quality artworks supplied by state-
owned antiquities shops to newly wealthy individuals became the driving force
of explosive growth in the art auction market in China. This growth was largely
facilitated by a group of entrepreneurs who were encouraged to take bold risks
in a re-emerging market. Some of them were in the audience observing Duo
Yun Xuan’s first auction and were inspired by what they saw. These risk-t akers
later became the entrepreneurs who fundamentally shaped the landscape of the
auction business in China.
Notes
1 Dr. Clare McAndrew, TEFAF Art Market Report in 2012.
2 Dr. Clare McAndrew, TEFAF Art Market Report in 2007.
3 The Cultural Revolution is also called The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
China’s Cultural Revolution has been called “Mao’s Last Revolution”, an attempt
to eliminate enemies within the Communist Party allegedly “taking the capitalist
road”, and concurrently a bottom-up call on China’s young people to become revolu-
tionary by “making revolution”. These young people, known as Red Guards, took to
the streets in the summer of 1966 to destroy the “four olds”. They smashed temples,
tore down street signs and replaced them with new names, and attacked people on the
street for signs of bourgeoisie desire: leather shoes, wide-legged pants, permed hair.
The attack on the “four olds” legitimized the Red Guards’ search of private homes
(chaojia), as personal possessions became evidence”. Denise Y. Ho, “From Confiscation
to Collection: The Objects of China’s Cultural Revolution”, The Oxford Handbook of
History and Material Culture, May 2020.
4 The story is based on primary research and the name of the interviewee was modified
to protect the identity of the interviewee.
5 Communiqué of the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eleventh Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64162/64168/64563/
65371/4441902.html.
6 To understand why violent acts by the Red Guard were tolerated and encouraged
during the Cultural Revolution, please refer to Denise Ho’s paper, “Culture, Class,
and Revolution in China’s Turbulent Decade: A Cultural Revolution State of the
Field”: “cycles of political campaigns led to a society in which people policed each
other and violence was legitimated.... Red Guard violence was seen as either a way
for individuals to transcend bad class labels or to demonstrate their own revolu-
tionary mettle.”
7 Landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad-inf luencers and rightists, who
were considered enemies of the Revolution.
8 In July 1970, under the instruction of Primer Zhou Enlai, Military Management
Group of the United Front System of Central State conducted an investigation on a
select number of staff from National People’s Congress and the National Committee
of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference regarding their proper-
ties confiscated during the house-ransacks. Based on this investigation, a document
called the Opinions on the Handling of Confiscated Properties of Some United Front Targets
in Beijing was drafted and officially issued in 1971 after Chairman Mao’s approval.
Within the same year, the properties were restituted to a number of staff, including
counselors of the State Council and librarians of Central Research Institute of

Culture and History of CPC. http://d zb.rmzxb.com/r mzxbPaper/pc/con/202107/
01/content_ 8814.html. This was the first official documentation of the restitution
effort associated with the Cultural Revolution. However, since the number of people
whose properties were restituted was very limited, the restitution endeavor did not
have a material impact nation- w ide. www.cppcc.gov.cn/2011/09/26/A RTI13170
04203149531.shtml.
9 https://new.zlck.com/book/tong yizhanxian/69.html.
10 https://new.zlck.com/book/tong yizhanxian/69.html.
11 At the time, an open market for the art trade did not exist and therefore it was diffi-
cult to provide valuations on paintings, calligraphies and other works of art.
12 http://roll.sohu.com/20120426/n 341744066.shtml.
13 There was only one state-own antiquities shop in each province in China and they
were the only legal entity permitted to trade art in China at the time, with a special
license granted by the state.
14 The government entities that oversaw the restitution of artworks differed among
different cities; it was up to the discretion of local municipal governments. For
example, in Tianjin, it was conducted by the Tianjin Antiquities Shop and in
Shanghai, it was by the Cultural Relics Distribution Division of the local Cultural
Relics Management Commission. Many of these restitution departments gradually
dissolved in the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
15 “How to Correctly Understand and Conscientiously Implement the Party’s Policy
Towards the National Bourgeoisies,” Research Department of the United Front
Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, February 15, 1979, People’s Daily
(https://r mrb.onli ne/simple/?t512320.html&PageSpeed=noscript).
16 “How to Correctly Understand and Conscientiously Implement the Party’s Policy
Towards the National Bourgeoisies,” Research Department of the United Front
Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, February 15, 1979, People’s Daily
https://r mrb.onli ne/simple/?t512320.html&PageSpeed=noscript.
17 In Maoist China, one’s class label had deep political implications and everyday eco-
nomic consequences. On the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949,
Mao defined the “people” to include the working class, the petty bourgeoisie, and
the national bourgeoisie. Opposed to the people were the “reactionaries”, or the
landlords, the bureaucratic capitalists, and “Nationalist reactionaries”. This dis-
tinction between the people and enemies is significant because only the people had
political rights; New China would have “democracy among the people and dictator-
ship over the reactionaries”, Denise Ho, “Culture, Class, and Revolution in China’s
Turbulent Decade: A Cultural Revolution State of the Field.”
18 http://a rt.people.com.cn/n /2013/0812/c206244–225254 49.html.
19 Zhang Daqian (1899–1983) was one of the most acclaimed ink painters in China’s
modern history, whose paintings and calligraphies were widely collected by the elite.
20 Qi Baishi (1864–1957) was another established artist in China’s modern history.
His and Zhang Daqian’s paintings and calligraphies were often considered the most
sought-a fter by collectors.
22 This bulk number published in the story only accounts for the pieces on record. For
house-ransacks without a record of properties looted, it would be impossible to esti-
mate the number of artworks.
23 This was the case for Beijing, the center of the administration of arts and cultural
affairs in China and will be discussed later in the chapter. It is possible that other
municipalities had similar but slightly different policies.
24 公文.
25 For example, Opinions on Properly Handling the Issues Remaining in the Confiscated
Property of the Cultural Revolution, issued in 1984, required that the restitution work be
completed by the end of 1984.
26 The story was based on primary research and the name of the interviewee was modi-
fied to protect their identity.
27 批斗/挨斗 https://cult ural revolution.pitt.edu/media/cr10-g lossa ry.pdf.
28 The story was based on primary research and the name of the interviewee was modi-
fied to protect the identity of the interviewee.
29 www.dswxy jy.org.cn/n1/2019/0228/c423730–30928273.html.
30 https://f ang jia.fang.com/process/bj/1010282911.htm.
31 The offer was rescinded after the family rejected it.
32 When he passed away in 1949, the collection he owned at the time included over
20,000 pieces of works of art, books and ancient manuscripts. https://news.qq.com/
a/20120407/0 00072.htm?utm_source=t witterfeed&utm_medium=t witter; http://
hxfu.xswz.cn/news/news_v iew.asp?newsid=625&tp=1.
33 www.ogichi na.org/a rticle/36/13684.html.
34 http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64162/64172/85037/85038/5930129.html.
35 http://collection.sina.com.cn/y jjj/20120512/104567522.shtml.
36 www.yicai.com/news/1709205.html.
38 https://business.sohu.com/20121012/n 354732115.shtml.
39 www.nbcnews.com/news/u s-news/renoir-boug ht-7-f lea-m arket-m ay-h ave-been-
stolen-museum-f lna1c9379722.
41 http://mjlsh.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/Book.aspx?cid=4&tid=5001.
4 4 http://photo.sina.com.cn/z l/oldphotos/2014–04–24/1731183.shtml.
45 www.artba s el.com/ s tor i es/ t he- a rt- b asel- a nd- u bs- g lo b al- a rt- m ar k et- r ep o rt-
2022?lang=en.
46 Since 2011, when the Chinese art market reached its first peak, it has gone through
some f luctuations.
47 Jeannette Shambaugh Elliot and David Shambaugh, The Odyssey of China’s Imperial
Art Treasures, University of Washington Press, 2007.
48 Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern
China, University of Hawaii Press, 2004, p. 108.
49 Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things, p. 108.
50 Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things, p. 100.
51 Denise Ho, “Reforming Connoisseurship: State and Collectors in Shanghai in the
1950s and 1960s.” Frontiers of History in China 7.4 (2012), p. 608–637.
52 Denise Ho, “Reforming Connoisseurship.” The paper listed a good example of the
Shanghai based collector Qian Jingtang.
53 Denise Ho, “Reforming Connoisseurship.”
54 http://a rt.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0517/c226026–29280877.html.
57 www.cia.gov/readi ngroom/docs/DOC_0 0003134 42.pdf.
58 Liang-Shing Fan, Professor of Economics, “The Economy and Foreign Trade of
China,” Colorado State University.
59 https://d ata.worldba nk.org/i ndicator/N E.EXP.GNFS.CD?locations=CN.

60 Interview with Zhang Rongde, 2019.
61 Zhu Junbo on Art Collecting, Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House.
62 《文物出口鉴定参考标准》，文化部、对外贸易部，1960年7月12日发布.
63 The regulations are a bit duplicative, but the structure has been retained to ref lect the
language of the regulation.
64 As discussed in page 3, the investigation conducted by the United Front Work
Department and the Party Group of the National Committee of the Political
Consultative Conference. (https://new.zlck.com/book/tong yizhanxian/69.html).
65 As discussed earlier in the chapter.
66 National Bureau of Statistics, 1983 www.stats.gov.cn/t jsj/t jgb/ndtjgb/qgndtjgb/200
203/t 20020331_ 29996.html; The USD to RMB exchange rate in 1983 was about 2:1.
67 www.mohr ss.gov.cn/ Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
68 www.stats.gov.cn/t jsj/z xf b/202202/t 20220227_1827960.html.
69 https://news.art ron.net/20120723/n 240443 _ 2 .html.
70 www.chinanews.com/cul/2010/07–01/2374935.shtml.
71 Most of the employees spoke Shanghai dialect in the office.
72 www.thepaper.cn/newsDeta il_ forwa rd_ 8471514.
2
AUCTION HOUSES, GALLERIES, ART
FAIRS AND PRIVATE MUSEUMS
1993–2003 The Early Stage of Development

The Chinese Antiquities Market
2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the PRC’s Reform and Opening-up Policy,
which was initiated in 1978, two years after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
China’s GDP grew from USD 149 billion (tenth-largest in the world) to USD
13.9 trillion in 2018, making it the second-largest economy in the world after the
US. China has also become the US’s largest trading partner.1
In August 2018, Art Market magazine in China published an article that
reviewed all the major milestones in the development of the auction market in
the country.2 When ref lecting on Duo Yun Xuan’s auction on June 20, 1993,
Zhao Yu, former Deputy Director of the Chinese Painting Institute and scholar
of China’s auction history, clearly recalled:
The renowned Chinese ink painter Xie Zhiliu (who was invited to the
podium) hit the first gavel at the first auction of Chinese cultural relics
and artworks.... The auction house printed 5,000 copies of the catalogue,
which were requested by and handed out to different collectors in (only)
3 days. The auction preview was held at the Shanghai Art Museum, with
an admission fee of RMB 20 (USD 3.5); the auction was held at the Hilton
Hotel, with an admission ticket of RMB 80 (USD 14). (Despite the high
admission fee) It was still hard to get a ticket.3
The auctioneer of Duo Yun Xuan’s first auction, Dai Xiaojing, remembered:
He (Zhu Junbo) put a lot of energy into this auction and from the very
beginning he thought of running an auction house, I think he had a great
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-3
deal of courage and vision. Another important reason was Deng Xiaoping’s
“Southern Talk” and that period in history, which was a very important
historical opportunity and set the stage for the event. If there was not such a
strong signal to boost up the economy and Shanghai was not provided with
special policies, the auction would not have been a great success.4
Among the audience members who came to watch the auction were two
founding members of China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd., Wang Yannan and
Gan Xuejun, who were both Deputy General Managers of the newly established
art auction company in Beijing. China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd. was founded
in May 1993 by the entrepreneur Chen Dongsheng, who also established the
logistics company ZJS Express in 1994 and Taikang Life Insurance Company in
1996. In 1997, China Guardian became a shareholder of Taikang Life Insurance
Company. It is now one of the Insurance Company’s largest shareholders.5
Today, China Guardian has grown to become the second-largest auction
house in China and the fourth-largest auction house in the world. The company
was established in a very different environment than that of Duo Yun Xuan.
Duo Yun Xuan was created on the foundation of a state-owned antiquities store
with a large inventory of artworks, a strong team of specialists, and a network of
international collectors who had been regular customers. China Guardian had
none of these.
Before Chen Dongsheng became a private entrepreneur, he worked for the
Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) as the Deputy
Editor of DRC’s publication Management World and oversaw the publication
of the Top 500 Enterprises in China ranking list. While in that position, he
became acquainted with a considerable number of senior executives at China’s
largest state-owned enterprises. In the early 1990s, he realized that the art
auction field was underdeveloped in China and that there was potential to
create a business in the field by following the model of Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
Subsequently, he won support for his business initiative from ten state-owned
enterprises and organizations, including China International Travel Service,
Sinotrans Ltd., and China Pacific Insurance Company, which provided a total
of RMB 20 million (USD 3 million) as funding for the registration of China
Guardian.
From the beginning, Sotheby’s has been a role model for Chen Dongsheng and
his team at China Guardian. Such admiration also inspired him to acquire 13.5%
of Sotheby’s stake through Taikang Insurance in 2016.6 After China Guardian
was created, Chen Dongsheng and Wang Yannan visited Sotheby’s Hong Kong
in the early 1990s. With Sotheby’s permission, they videotaped its entire auction
process and recorded all the details for China Guardian to learn from. Through
Wang Yannan’s introduction, Chen Dongsheng met Lark Mason, Sotheby’s
specialist in Chinese furniture, who shared his experience of how Sotheby’s
established trust and credibility with its clients. The conversation helped the
founding team of China Guardian to develop the company’s core values.
Auction Houses, Galleries, Art Fairs and Private Museums 31
After China Guardian was launched in May 1993, it took less than a year for
the company to recruit a team and source artworks to be included in its first
auction. When ref lecting on the early stage of the company, Wang Yannan said,
“A unique feature of China Guardian when the company was founded was that
none of its employees at the time were art market experts.” Before joining China
Guardian in 1993 as the Deputy General Manager and becoming the General
Manager in 1996, she had been the General Manager, for almost a decade, of the
first five-star hotel in Beijing that carried an international brand: The Great Wall
Sheraton Hotel. She began collecting Chinese furniture sporadically in the early
1990s but knew little of how the art market operated. Other senior staff, such as
the Deputy General Manager in charge of sourcing, Gan Xuejun, used to work
for the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. And the Office Manager who
oversaw operations and legal matters, Kou Qin, had worked for the Ministry of
Culture before joining China Guardian.
Forming China Guardian’s first team of specialists, Chen Lianyong took
charge of the auction house’s Chinese Works of Art Department and had been
the head of the Ceramics Department at the Capital Art Museum in Beijing.
Tuo Xiaotang oversaw the Books and Manuscripts Department and had pre-
viously been a project leader at the Rare Books Department of the National
Library. Hu Yanyan became the head of the Modern Paintings Department and
had been an editor for the Beijing Yanshan Press, which was affiliated with the
State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
When the team prepared for the first auction to be held on March 27, 1994,
most of the lots were sourced through Gan Xuejun’s connections with the state-
owned antiquities stores that were supervised by the State Administration of
Cultural Heritage, his previous employer. Another important source of artworks
for the auction came from the personal collections of retired cadres. Wang
Yannan was the daughter of Zhao Ziyang (1919–2005), “the bold reformer who
served as China’s premier (1980–1987) and Communist Party general secretary
(1987–1989)” and who “was stripped of his power and placed under house arrest
after opposing the use of force against the student protesters in the spring of
1989.” 7 According to one anonymous China Guardian employee, the reverence
that many retired cadres held for Zhao Ziyang was a crucial factor that stimulated
them to consign their art collections to China Guardian through Wang Yannan.
After these artworks were consigned, the team at China Guardian had the
works inspected by a group of experts in the field to ensure their authenticity
and provenance. For example, Xu Bangda, an acclaimed connoisseur of Chinese
paintings who worked at the Palace Museum in Beijing, was one such expert. In
terms of the valuation, the estimates were based on the advice of experts from
various antiquities stores who had years of experience in the art trade.
The majority of the buyers at China Guardian’s first auction in the spring
of 1994 were private entrepreneurs or people from state- owned enterprises
whom Chen Dongsheng and Wang Yannan knew well through their networks
established during their previous careers. Some collectors from Hong Kong (e.g.,
Robert Chang) and Taiwan also participated in the bidding. There were 245 lots
offered, which covered two categories: Chinese modern paintings and Chinese
oil paintings. The auction achieved a sell-through rate of 76% and a total sale
of RMB 14.2 million (USD 1.60 million). The Chinese modern paintings cat-
egory contributed 86% of the result. The two top lots—a hanging scroll by
Zhang Daqian that sold for RMB 2.09 million (USD 243,000) and a painting
by Qi Baishi that sold for RMB 1.76 million (USD 205,000)—created a record
for each of the respective artists and were bought by the state-owned enterprise
Zhongguancun Credit Union.8
The success of Duo Yun Xuan and China Guardian’s first auctions was based
on two factors. On the supply side, the sourcing of artworks mostly came from
state-owned antiquities shops, and this enabled the auction houses’ specialists to
include some of the highest quality artworks in their sales. On the demand side,
in addition to renowned international collectors who came to China to par-
ticipate in the auctions, around 50% of the buyers were newly wealthy Chinese
entrepreneurs who benefited from the country’s fast economic growth and began
collecting art.
These two auctions were a turning point for the art market in the PRC.
Before this occurred, the art trade was controlled by state-owned antiquities
shops under a planned economy; afterwards, art commerce started to operate
similarly to a market-based economy and profited from the “invisible hand.” The
transformation to a market system stimulated more state-own antiquities shops
to maximize the value of their art inventories and at the same time, demand for
buying art skyrocketed. Consequently, the art market enjoyed substantial growth
with higher prices and more trading activity.
The high prices of artworks achieved at these two auctions sent positive
signals to the market. For individuals who had art collections (e.g., restituted
after the Cultural Revolution), it became clear that selling through an auction
house would be a much better way of maximizing value than selling through the
state-owned antiquities stores. At the same time, many state-owned antiquities
stores recognized the opportunity of earning significant new revenues by cre-
ating their own auction houses.
Some of the most prominent collectors in China began their art-collecting
journey at this time. Liu Gang, a lawyer and renowned modern and contem-
porary art collector, noted that in 1992 it became legal for individual lawyers to
register private law practices in China. In 1993, he started collecting art with the
dividends he received as a founder of his own law firm, Tongshang Law Firm.
The collector Liu Yiqian, who founded four private Long Museums in Shanghai,
Chongqing and Wuhan, began buying at China Guardian’s auctions in 1994
and is now considered one of the largest collectors by the world’s top auction
houses. He purchased the Chinese porcelain Chicken Cup for USD 36.3 million
from Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2014 and a painting by Amedeo Modigliani, Nu
Couche, for USD 170.4 million from Christie’s New York in 2015, both records
at the time.
In addition to the f lourishing auction market, the early 1990s was also a period
when other forms of art commerce became active in China. In 1991, the first
private museum based on an individual’s art collection, Yan Huang Art Museum,
was established in Beijing. In the same year, the first private contemporary art
gallery in China, Red Gate Gallery, was founded in Beijing by an Australian
who lived in China, Brian Wallace. In 1993, the first early-stage art fair “Art
Bazaar” was launched in Guangzhou.
Among the different forms of art commerce, including galleries, art fairs,
and auctions, the auction market in China has achieved the fastest rate of devel-
opment. The exponential growth of the art trade in China over the past three
decades, in fact, was mainly driven by the growth and expansion of domestic
auction houses. Part of the reason was that the generation of High Net Worth
Individuals (HNWI) that emerged during China’s economic reform in the early
1990s viewed auctions as a fair system with clear price transparency and true
price discovery. This resulted in auctions becoming their preferred channel for
acquiring art. As collector Liu Yiqian has said: “Auctions offered an open and
transparent pricing system.” He explained that he often liked to buy the cover
lot of an auction catalogue, because “The cover lot selected by auction houses
demonstrated the highest level of quality of an artwork offered in the season.”
One year after China Guardian held its first auction, a few dozen additional
art auction houses had been established. In 1995, the Ministry of Internal Trade
(changed to the Ministry of Commerce in 2003) created a new entity, the China
Association of Auctioneers to supervise the activities and practices of art auctions
in China. The same year, sales of the four largest domestic auction houses
achieved RMB 480 million (USD 57.5 million), over 50 times the value of the
1993 auction. The number of lots sold for more than RMB 1 million (USD
120,000) was ten and Beijing Hanhai Auction House’s Spring Sale accomplished
sales totaling RMB 105 million (USD 12.6 million), with the top lot sold for
RMB 19.8 million (USD 2.4 million), the record for that year. This record price
for a Chinese painting was over 12 times that achieved of any lot over the pre-
vious two years.
The continuous string of new records created at the Chinese auction houses
started to encourage overseas collectors to consign their collections of antiquities
to domestic market players. This marked a turning point for the inbound f low of
Chinese cultural relics. Previously when art commerce was monopolized by state-
owned antiquities stores, the circulation of Chinese antiquities was mostly uni-
directionally outbound from mainland China to overseas. Occasionally the PRC
government would acquire a few valuable pieces that were considered stolen and
lost during the Republic time (1912–1949) from the international art market to
include in the state’s collection.
The emergence of auction houses in China helped establish a new pricing
system, in which the price equilibrium was now achieved by balancing supply and
demand in a mostly free market. Tremendous domestic demand for high-quality
artworks was ignited and drove up prices substantially. As a result, many overseas
collectors began to sell through Chinese auction houses to profit from the rise in
the market. For example, the record for Qi Baishi’s painting at China Guardian’s
first auction in 1994 was also the artist’s world record at the time. In the company’s
Fall Sales in 1995, renowned Hong Kong-based collector Yang Yongde consigned
165 paintings by Qi Baishi, which were sold for nearly RMB 13 million (USD
1.5 million).9
In 1996, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed
the Auction Law of the People’s Republic of China, which became effective
in January 1997. It was the first time that the PRC government recognized
auctions as a channel to allocate assets and resources within its legal framework.
The Auction Law announced a number of requirements to establish an art and
antiquities auction house in China, for example: having a minimum of RMB
10 million (USD 1.2 million) of registered capital; and to become an auctioneer,
a minimum of two years of experience would be necessary. The official law
also declared that the China Association of Auctioneers would be the regula-
tory authority of auction houses and auctioneers in China. According to the
Auction Law, the China Association of Auctioneers is authorized to organize
regular examinations for auctioneers and to issue the licenses required for any
auctioneers to practice in the field.
The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 had an impact on the trading
activities of the art market in China over the next few years. The total sales of
the top four auction houses in China in 1997 was RMB 456 million, an 8%
decrease from RMB 500 million in 1996. In 1998 and 1999, the number went
down to RMB 430 million, a 6% drop year-on-year, and RMB 360 million,
a 16% decrease year-on-year, respectively. The decline stopped after 2000. In
2001, the year when China became a member of the World Trade Organization,
the auction results of the top four houses picked up again. They exceeded the
1996 peak attained before the Asian financial crisis, achieving total sales of RMB
587 million, 17% higher than those in 1996. Subsequently, the total sales of the
top auction houses in China grew 25% year-on-year in 2002 and 31% year-on-
year in 2003. After the end of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
epidemic in 2003, which contributed to an economic slowdown, the market
experienced explosive growth in 2004.
While the art market in China f luctuated during the Asian financial crisis and
resumed growth at the start of the new millennium, the Chinese government
issued a number of laws and regulations to create a more robust regulatory envir-
onment for art trade and cultural protection.
In 2001, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released a list of cer-
tain artists who had lived between 1795 and 1949 and a list of certain artists who
had died after 1949.10 Most of the artworks created by these artists, 385 artists in
total, are not allowed to be exported (in 2013, an additional list of 24 artists was
added by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage11). This regulation has
had a long-term impact on the trading activities of Chinese paintings worldwide.
Once an artwork by any of the artists on the lists enters China, it cannot leave the
country. Such a one-directional movement of artworks continuously limits the

supply of works available outside of China. This partly explains why today the
trading volume of Chinese paintings at auction in mainland China is significantly
higher than anywhere else in the world.
In 2002, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed
the Cultural Relics Protection Law of PRC, which was updated from the law
issued in 1982. Different than the 1982 law, which limited individuals’ ability to
collect works outside of state-owned antiquities stores, the law passed in 2002
made it legal—in addition to buying at state-owned antiquities stores—for indi-
viduals and corporations to collect antiquities through auctions or private sales.
At the same time, the law forbade state-owned antiquities stores from establishing
auction houses and forbade auction houses from establishing antiquities stores.12
This policy aimed at preventing substantial amounts of inventory from state-
owned antiquities stores from being released onto the market through auction.
In December 2003, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued
Notification to Apply for and Issue Cultural Relics Auction Licenses.13 According to this
regulation, antiquities (Chinese cultural relics) permitted to be sold at auctions
were divided into three categories: 1) Chinese porcelain, jade, precious stones
and metal wares; 2) Chinese paintings, antique books, manuscripts, stamps, and
historical documents; and 3) bamboo ware, lacquers, wood ware, furniture and
textiles. Only a limited number of well-operated auction houses were allowed
to sell all three categories of antiquities. The rest of the auction houses were
only permitted to sell the second and third categories. This regulation offered a
competitive advantage to the top few auction houses in China. In 2017, among
525 auction houses that were licensed to sell Chinese antiquities, the five largest
auction houses had a nearly 60% of the market share. The regulation enabled
some auction businesses to grow to a much larger scale than others.14 Although
in May 2015, the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau issued a Notice on Matters Related
to Auction Enterprises Operating Cultural Relics Auction License15 and removed the
category-based restrictions for local auction houses in Beijing, the market shares
of the largest auction houses had been established before the change of regulation
and it was too late for medium and small auction houses to catch up.
In retrospect, China’s art market from 1993 to 2003 completed the transition
from operating in a planned economy to operating in a market economy. The
market experienced solid growth in trading volume with a continuous generation
of new records at auctions. The domestic legal infrastructure that once lagged
behind the market had grown in volume and created a more stringent regulatory
environment.
At the end of the decade, auction houses had overtaken state-owned antiqui-
ties stores to dominate the trading activities of Chinese antiquities. The benefit of
buying and selling artworks through a transparent and open market was widely
appreciated by Chinese collectors. Records created at auctions encouraged a sub-
stantial number of new participants to enter the market. In 2003, the total sales
achieved at domestic auction houses were RMB 2.66 billion (USD 320 million),
300 times those in 1993.16 After witnessing and experiencing the exponential
increase, many participants began to believe that the art market could also offer
an investment opportunity. The concept of art as an investment was proactively
promoted by domestic auction houses. In the following year, 2004, the trans-
actional values of the art auction market in China jumped to three times those
of 2003, the highest year-on-year increase in the history of China’s art market.
The Chinese Contemporary Art Market

While the trade in Chinese antiquities experienced the transition from state-
owned antiquities stores to local auction houses, the Chinese contemporary art
market followed a different path of development from 1993 to 2003. The emer-
gence of the Chinese contemporary art movement can be traced back to the end
of the 1970s. In the 1980s, due to the lack of market infrastructure to support
contemporary artists commercially, the transactional volume was extremely
low. Often works were sold by Chinese contemporary artists directly to foreign
diplomats, journalists, or expatriates, who comprised the first group of collectors
of these artworks.
In 1993, the owner of Hanart Gallery in Hong Kong, Johnson Chang, co-
curated an exhibition “China’s New Art, Post-1989” with the mainland Chinese
curator Li Xianting. The exhibition took place at Hong Kong City Hall and the
Hong Kong Arts Center and was supported by David Tang, a Hong Kong busi-
nessman and the founder of Shanghai Tang (a luxury fashion group). After the
exhibition, Johnson Chang’s gallery began to represent a group of Chinese con-
temporary artists and introduced some of them to the 22nd Sao Paolo Biennial
in 1994 and the 46th Venice Biennial in 1995.
The international attention Chinese contemporary art attracted through these
exhibitions encouraged more gallery owners from the US, Europe, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Singapore to visit the PRC in the mid-1990s, to acquire works from
these artists, and to organize selling exhibitions for them. As artist Zhang Xiaogang
recalls, after he was represented by Hanart Gallery in late 1993, from the mid-1990s
to 2000, it was normal for a contemporary artist to participate in seven or eight
domestic and international exhibitions in a year. In the busiest year, he participated
in 13 exhibitions and was painting nonstop to meet the demand of exhibition
requests. By 2000, he already had three galleries representing him in Hong Kong,
the US and France.
Meanwhile, a number of galleries were established in China in the 1990s
to offer professional services and support to artists. These included Red Gate
Gallery in 1991 and Courtyard Gallery in 1996 in Beijing, and ShanghArt
Gallery in 1996 in Shanghai, and they all played an instrumental role in nurt-
uring the market.
In 1996, the domestic auction house Zhong Shang Sheng Jia organized the first
auction in China dedicated to the new category of Chinese contemporary art. The
auction included the works of 70 Chinese contemporary artists, and most of the
buyers were foreign diplomats and expatriates who were living in China at the time.
Although the Chinese antiquities market achieved steady growth at auction in the
mid-1990s, the domestic demand for Chinese contemporary art, other than in the
diplomatic and expatriate communities, was low. After the second auction held in
1997, Zhong Shang Sheng Jia ended its sales of contemporary art because of weak
results.
Two years later, Beijing Hanhai Auction Ltd. held three auctions of Chinese
contemporary art between 1999 and 2000, and Beijing Rongbao Auction House
held one sale in 2000. The results achieved at each auction were only about RMB
2 to 3 million (no more than USD 360,000) with a sell-through rate of approxi-
mately 50%.17 Both auction houses suspended their sales after the disappointing
outcome.
The secondary market for Chinese contemporary art became dormant and
did not pick up until October 2004, when Sotheby’s Hong Kong organized its
first auction dedicated to this category.
Yet 1993 to 2003 was a golden period for a group of Chinese contemporary
artists who attracted international attention, received representation from over-
seas galleries, and actively participated in international (as well as domestic)
exhibitions. Many of them were finally able to make a comfortable living and
produced considerable bodies of work. The early collecting activities by for-
eign diplomats and expatriates helped establish a multinational collector base for
these artists. The decade-long growth of this primary market nurtured the key
drivers for the secondary market to take off in the international arena after 2004.
Collectors within China recognized that this new generation of artists was cre-
ating valuable artworks and generating more supply into the market, and demand
by international dealers and collectors solidified this as a market with real poten-
tial. These factors laid the foundation for the growth of Chinese contemporary
art over the next 20 years.
2004–2011 Explosive Growth

Throughout the 40-year modern history of China’s art market, one common
observation that all the market veterans had was its explosive growth from 2003
to 2004. As recalled by Kou Qin, President and CEO of Guardian Investment
Holding Co. Ltd. and General Manager of Guardian Art Center:
As far as I can remember, the year 2003 was a critical time, for reasons
I still don’t quite understand, for which I might need to consult some
economists. 2003 witnessed the outbreak of SARS. Before SARS and since
1994, the company had grown at a steady pace, but there had been no big
jump in revenue. But right after 2003, we experienced a big boom.
Evelyn Lin, Deputy Chairman, International Director, and Head of

Department of Asian 20th Century & Contemporary Art at Christie’s said
“SARS broke out in 2003, and after that, China’s economy started to take off. In
2004, you would feel everything could be sold.”
From 2003 to 2004, the market achieved the highest year-on-year growth
in history. The total sales in 2004 were RMB 7.75 billion (USD 940 million),
almost three times those in 2003 at RMB 2.66 billion (USD 320 million).
Overall, the trajectory of increase continued all the way to 2011, when the total
sales were RMB 94.75 billion (USD 14.7 billion), over 35 times those of 2003.18,19
After 2001, when China became a member of the World Trade Organization,
the economy experienced a period of rapid development (following a brief
adjustment during the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s). Economic
growth during this phase included a substantial increase in Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in China. The surge of FDI into China not only contributed
to the expansion of China’s economy, but also encouraged a more open mindset
toward Western businesses, brands, and arts and culture among the public. It
was during this stage that Chinese collectors began actively traveling overseas
and acquiring Western artworks. Also at this stage, blue-chip Western galleries
began establishing branches in China, for instance, Galleria Continua in Beijing
in 2005 and Pace Gallery in Beijing in 2008.
This phase of the development of China’s art market started with explosive
growth from 2003 to 2004. At the end of 2002, SARS had broken out in South
China; the epidemic surged in 2003 and was eventually fully contained in the
spring of 2004. In 2004, the art market in China experienced tremendous growth,
which has often been called the “Post-SARS growth.” Hu Yanyan, President of
China Guardian Auctions, said that at that time, the company’s business grew so
fast that its specialists did not even have to go out to source objects for auctions.
Instead, they were swamped by a significant number of sellers who brought their
collections to China Guardian to consign. To accommodate the sheer number of
artworks consigned in 2005, China Guardian launched four off-season auctions
in addition to the regular Spring and Fall sales.
Poly International Auction Co. Ltd. was created during the “Post-SARS
growth” period by Poly Culture Group, a state-owned enterprise listed on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In November 2005, Poly held its first auction in
Beijing with two sales categories: Chinese modern paintings and Chinese oil
paintings. The auction achieved a result of RMB 560 million (USD 68 million).
In their first season, they achieved 80% of China Guardian’s auction sales revenue
for the same season. Two years later, they began selling Chinese works of art.
A crucial milestone for the development of Poly Auction took place from
spring 2009 to spring 2010 when the Belgian collectors Guy and Myriam
Ullens consigned nearly 50 Chinese classical paintings and Chinese contem-
porary artworks from their collection in three auctions at Poly. The total results
achieved were over RMB 600 million (USD 88 million). A Chinese classical
painting by Ming Dynasty painter Wu Bing was sold for RMB 169 million
(USD 25 million) and a Chinese calligraphy by Song Dynasty master Zeng Gong
was sold for RMB 108.6 million (USD 16 million). Both were world records at
the time. Due to the results accomplished in the Ullens Collection sales, Poly
Auction became the largest auctioneer of Chinese art in the world in 2009.20 In
less than 15 years, Poly Auction would grow to become the largest auction house
in China and the third largest in the world after Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
What allowed Poly Culture Group to become an important force in the
market started much earlier, when it opened a museum of Chinese antiquities
(including Chinese bronzes) in 1999. As the company collected works of art for
its corporate museum, it came to know many specialists in the field and learned
how the art market operated. In addition, Poly Culture Group’s parent company
is China Poly Group, a large state-owned-enterprise “with extensive businesses
in multiple fields, including international trade, real estate development, light
industry R&D and engineering services, arts and crafts raw materials & products
management services, culture & arts business, civil explosives materials & ser-
vices, information and communication technology, and finance” and “created
with the approval of the State Council and the Central Military Commission.”21
The robust financial resources of China Poly Group undoubtedly brought a
competitive advantage to Poly Auction.
The global financial crisis that began in 2007 had a deep impact on much of
the international art market, but it did not particularly inf luence the trajectory
of growth of the art market in China. It wasn’t until 2008, the year when Beijing
held the Summer Olympic Games, that the auction market decreased 45% from
the year before. But the market rebounded quickly in 2009 to RMB 21 billion
(USD 3 billion), almost to the same level as in 2007. Part of the reason that
China was less affected by the international financial crisis was that in 2008, the
Chinese government announced a RMB 4-trillion (USD 590-billion) stimulus
package to the economy, the largest in the country’s history.
With an enormous amount of capital circulating in the country, and a general
perception at the time that the strong growth of the art market in China offered a
superb investment opportunity, a substantial number of newcomers (speculators),
who were not long-term collectors but short-term investors, entered the market.
Kou Qin, President and CEO of Guardian Investment Holding Co. Ltd. and
General Manager of Guardian Art Center recalled, “By the time of 2008 and
2009, everyone in China was following art investment with great interest. The
entire society was engaged in some kind of art carnival, from banking institutions
to various organizations across the society.”
According to Yu Jinsheng, Deputy Director of the Art Market Committee
of the China Association of Auctioneers, in 2009 a tremendous amount of cap-
ital from the financial sector entered the art market and pushed up prices of
artworks considerably. Starting from 2009, many financial institutions began to
create art investment funds. In 2010 there was a total of RMB 750 million (USD
110 million) art investment funds issued in China and just one year later, in 2011,
the amount increased to RMB 5.5 billion (USD 850 million).22 These art invest-
ment funds were dedicated to different categories, including Chinese paintings,
Chinese porcelains and bronzes, and Chinese contemporary art. Many of the fund
managers knew little about connoisseurship, but rather treated artworks as stocks
and hoped to profit from speculation.
Often such art investment funds aimed to have a quick return within a year
or two.23 In addition to art funds, a number of art and culture exchanges were
created across the country, where the values of artworks were divided into equal
shares and traded like equities. By July 2011, there were 36 art exchanges in
China, and 21 of them had already begun daily trading of these artwork deriva-
tive products.24
As Kou Qin described, “Everyone was in for money. It was a bit like the stock
market that year, which was a terrible thing.... Funds were raised and partnerships
formed to invest in art, because people witnessed the market explosion after 2003.”
Such a frenetic expansion of transactional volume, driven by many new
participants who intended to profit from short-term speculation, pushed the sales
of China’s auction market to a new historical high. In 2011, when total sales
reached RMB 94.75 billion (USD 14.7 billion), China became the largest art
auction market in the world.
At the time, senior executives at the local leading auction houses began to
worry. Kou Qin said: “During that period, it was also the time when we were
most frightened. We found that the situation was completely out of our control.
The prices climbed too high, and the transaction volume grew too large. The
expansion seemed unstoppable.”
Not surprisingly, the market had excess supply and a considerable number of
short-term speculators participating. A correction would be unavoidable. In 2012,
when many art investment funds and investors realized that the art market lacked
liquidity and was not an ideal avenue to make a quick profit, they abruptly exited
the market. Often the capital that f lew into the market in previous years was on
loan from financial institutions or individuals and the buyers of artworks were
paying interest against these loans. When they were unable to sell these previ-
ously acquired artworks quickly enough or at higher prices than what they had
borrowed, disputes occurred.
From 2011 to 2012, the art auction sales in China dropped 53% (RMB 44
billion; USD 700 million), the largest year- on-
year decrease since the first
auction house was created in China in 1993.
Li Xuesong, Deputy General Manager of Poly Auctions and a specialist of
Chinese classical paintings, recalled the time: “In hindsight, art investment funds
never really worked in China.”
Starting from 2012, the development of the art auction market in China
entered a new phase described by Hu Yanyan, President of China Guardian
Auctions, as “a phase of transition and maturity.”
The Growth of the Chinese Contemporary Art Market

In addition to the explosive growth in the domestic auction market, 2004 was
also a critical year for the development of the Chinese contemporary art market.
In April 2004, the first professionally organized art fair, China International
Gallery Exhibition (CIGE), modeled after Western art fairs, was held in Beijing.
A total of 68 galleries from the US, Europe, and Asia exhibited at the fair, which
attracted nearly 30,000 visitors.
In the same month, the 798 Contemporary Art District in Beijing, named
after the former industrial factory built in the 1950s with Bauhaus-style archi-
tecture, held the first Chinese contemporary art festival, which attracted over
80,000 visitors.
In October 2004, Sotheby’s Hong Kong held the first auction dedicated to
Chinese contemporary art. Previously, Chinese contemporary art was mixed
with modern paintings in Sotheby’s auctions in Hong Kong. It was the first
time that an international auctioneer recognized the market for Chinese contem-
porary art by creating a new category in its regular sales season.
Evelyn Lin, Deputy Chairman, International Director and Head of
Department of Asian 20th Century & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, organized
the sale during her tenure at Sotheby’s. When recalling how she noticed this
market, she said:
My interests were inspired by many large exhibitions, like those curated

by Johnson Chang (Hanart Gallery in Hong Kong) and these exhibitions
gradually guided me to pay attention to the contemporary Chinese artists.
When I was working in the department of modern oil paintings I observed
that some collectors had already begun to collect Chinese contemporary
art. Therefore, I felt there might be room for development in this market.
It took her about a year to source all the works. Out of 50 lots offered in the
sale, 47 found buyers, achieving a sell-through rate of 94% and a total result of
above HKD 22 million (USD 2.8 million), 81% over the pre-sale low estimate.25
The success of the sale encouraged Sotheby’s to hold an inaugural
Contemporary Art Asia auction in New York in March 2006 during Asia Week.
Most of the works in the sale were Chinese contemporary artworks. The auction
achieved sales of over USD 13.2 million, far beyond the pre-sale estimate of USD
6 to 8 million. In total, 245 lots were offered and realized a sell-through rate of
89.8%. According to the company’s press release, it was “the highest total to date
for a sale of Chinese Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s.”26 The top lot achieved at
the auction was artist Zhang Xiaogang’s Bloodline Series: Comrade No. 120, 1998
(Figure 2.1), which was sold for USD 979,200, a record for the artist.
For the first time, a Chinese contemporary artist’s work had sold at almost
a million dollars. As Zhang Xiaogang recalled, “In 2004 when the price of
a Chinese contemporary artwork exceeded RMB 1 million (USD 120,000),
everyone was excited. We did not expect that in two years, the record would
become USD 1 million. It was a huge difference.”
The robust auction results achieved in New York attracted broad attention to
the growth of the category from the international art community. The next day,
Bloodline-Big Family: Comrade No.120, oil on canvas 190 x 150 cm,

FIGURE 2.1 ZXG,
1998. © ZHANG XIAO GANG
the New York Times published a story entitled “China: The New Contemporary-
Art Frontier.” It reported that a Manhattan collector, Sue Stoffel, “who has been
buying Chinese contemporary art since 1990…watched her holdings appreciate by
10,000 percent.”27
The sudden and rapid rise of prices in just a couple of years triggered a
collecting frenzy for Chinese contemporary art. Previously most of the collectors
of this category were overseas buyers who traveled to China or were diplomats or
expatriates who lived in China (such as Guy and Myriam Ullens and Uli Sigg).
But after the stellar sales results accomplished at Sotheby’s auction in New York
in 2006, many Chinese buyers entered the market, immediately driving up
prices in the domestic market. In November 2006, one year after Poly Auction
was founded, an oil painting New Immigrants at the Three Gorges, painted by artist
Liu Xiaodong in 2004, was estimated at RMB 10 million (USD 1.2 million) and
sold for RMB 22 million (USD 2.7 million), a record for Chinese contemporary
art in China. The buyer was Zhang Lan, a Chinese entrepreneur and owner of
the successful Southern Beauty chain of restaurants.
The artist Liu Xiaodong was confused and distressed by the result. After the
auction, he said that just two or three years previously, his paintings sold for barely
USD 20,000, less than 1% of the new record. “The growth of the market was
distorted and frantic. Wealthy people in China are not like those in Western coun-
tries. They are not permitted to buy yachts and helicopters, so when they don’t
know what to do with their money, they spend a fortune on art.” The painting
was initially acquired by an Indonesian collector and Liu Xiaodong was shocked
that the collector flipped it in such a short time at auction. “I am disappointed and
perplexed. I have mixed feelings about this.”28
Ref lecting on the peak of the market in 2006 and 2007, artist Zhang Xiaogang,
who created the Bloodline Series said:
At the time auctions were so popular and dominated the trade in the
market. Galleries all of a sudden had nothing better to do. People said for
artists like us, the prices increased 1,000 times compared with those in
the 1980s and 1990s. Every week or two, we heard about another record
created at an auction. It was crazy....
I remember one day I entertained eight different groups of visitors in my
studio, including new collectors, press, and people who were looking for
project collaboration. I was exhausted meeting so many new people of all
sorts every day. In the end, I could not tell who was genuinely interested
in my art. One of the overseas collectors came to my studio and almost
kneeled in front of me, begging and crying for me to sell him my painting
at a cheap price and told me how much he loved my work. The next year,
he f lipped the painting at an auction and I have never seen him again. I was
heartbroken. Afterward, I became scared of the auction and felt that it was
so far away from the art. I wanted to stay away from it.
Such a wave of frantic buying and selling activity lasted until early 2008 and
then abated after the outbreak of the world financial crisis. In 2009 the category
of Chinese contemporary art experienced a significant decrease. According to
a report published by Artprice, China auction revenue decreased 63% between
2008 and 2009 in the contemporary art category.29
In 2009 the global art trade decreased by about 26% during the economic
recession.30 When the overall market dropped, many previously active collectors
reduced their buying activities. As described in the Artprice report:
The global art market contracted very severely, particularly at the high
end of the Contemporary Chinese art market. With speculative buying
almost immediately withdrawing from the arena, it quickly became clear
that offering very expensive and price-sensitive works of Contemporary
art at auction was not a good idea.31
In 2009 Sotheby’s New York stopped offering a Chinese contemporary art

sale during Asia Week, and this category has never resumed as a stand-a lone sale
at the auction house’s locations outside Asia.
As artist Zhao Xiaogang commented:
Many (Chinese contemporary) artists were thus ruined during this (sudden
market f luctuation). When the market was going up, the demand was
strong with prices soaring. Some artists created a large amount of works
to sell and sold well. But the art world does not work like this. When the
financial crisis happened and the market couldn’t absorb so many works,
these artists suffered....
In the end, if collectors couldn’t make money from the art market, they
could profit from somewhere else. But professional artists could only sur-
vive by creating art. When (the artists’) market went down, all (their)
value was gone, and they felt abandoned by society. Overnight exhibitions,
catalog production, press coverage, and collectors were all gone.
In 2008 Zhang Xiaogang entered an exclusive representation agreement with

Pace Gallery in New York. He was relieved to have a layer of protection from an
international blue-chip gallery against the f luctuation of the market.
I was lucky. Had it not been for (the representation of ) Pace, I might have
been drifting in the market and might have disappeared. I don’t think it’s
an artist’s specialty to deal with the market. Only a few artists have such a
talent, but most artists are not able to handle (the market).
In hindsight, because the collector base of Chinese contemporary art was

very international, the market was more directly impacted by the global reces-
sion during the financial crisis than the markets of Chinese paintings and works
of art. As a result, in contrast to Chinese antiquities, Chinese contemporary art
experienced a much quicker downturn.
On the other hand, the correction of the market was beneficial to the long-
term development of the category. It helped def late the speculative bubble and
encouraged artists to value collaboration with professional galleries that foster
and develop long-lasting commitments to the careers of artists.
Western Galleries Come to China

While in 2007 the Chinese contemporary art market reached its peak, it was also
a year that began a new transformation of the market in China. ART HK, the
Hong Kong International Art Fair that solidified Hong Kong as the center of the
art market in Asia, was founded by two British businessmen, Magnus Renfrew
and Charles Ross.32 Five years later, ART HK was acquired by MCH Group, the
parent company of Art Basel, which held the inaugural Art Basel in Hong Kong
in 2013.
Christie’s Evelyn Lin recollected how the fair began a market shift: “It was
Hong Kong International Art Fair that introduced many important international
galleries to the Asian market.”
Beijing-based collector Yang Bin who had been on the advisory board of
ART HK recalled that he first traveled overseas in 2006 and bought Western
artworks at Art Basel in Switzerland for USD 1 million. Today he has over 500
works in his permanent collection, and Western contemporary art will continue
to be a collecting focus for him.
The trend for Western galleries to organize exhibitions in China can be traced
back to 2004 when Galleria Continua exhibited an international program in
Beijing in a temporary space as the first foreign gallery to engage in such an
effort. In 2005, it opened a space in the 798 Contemporary Art District in Beijing.
The inaugural exhibition in May 2005 featured 16 artists from 5 continents.33 In
2008, Pace Gallery established a 25,000-square-foot space in the same district,
the first such outpost in Asia. Its inaugural exhibition in August 2008 showed
works by a group of artists from China, Japan, and the US. Among the renowned
Western artists, there were works by Andy Warhol, Jean-M ichel Basquiat, Jeff
Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and George Condo. Although the group
exhibition at Pace Beijing did not generate many sales of Western contemporary
artworks at the time, it helped nurture the market by bringing works by these
acclaimed Western artists to China.
2009 marked the first series of active buying by a mainland Chinese collector
of impressionist and modern art in the international open market. As recalled
by David Norman, a private art dealer and former Worldwide Chairman of
Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s: “I started to notice the trend 10 years
ago in 2009, when an individual collector bought a Picasso in an evening sale and
then bid on a large number of works in the day sale.”
This Chinese buyer turned out to be Nanjing- based entrepreneur Yan
Lugen. During the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale held at Sotheby’s
New York on November 4, 2009, he bought four works for USD 10.8 million.
These included a portrait of Francoise Gilot, Femme au Chapeau Vert, which
Pablo Picasso painted in 1947, for USD 8.15 million (pre-sale estimate USD
4 to 6 million), and an 1864 landscape by Claude Monet, La chapelle de Notre-
Dame-de-Grâce, Honfleur, which sold for USD 842,500 (pre-sale estimate USD
400,000 to 600,000).34 Before Yan died in September 2022, he owned one of
the largest collections of impressionist and modern art of any mainland Chinese
collector, including over 50 works by Picasso and important sculptures by Rodin

and Degas.
Based on his three decades of observation, art dealer David Norman said, “In
the past, new buyers often began in the day sales or lower-level evening sales. After
that and developing their taste and experience, they would step up to the higher-
valued pieces.” In contrast, he noted that “When the Chinese bidders entered
the market, they mostly started on the high-end evening sales…the top names of
Impressionist & Modern Art…(where) well above all else are Monet and Picasso.”
The trend of collecting Western art prevailed after 2012. Many top collectors
and private museum owners in China have a considerable number of Western
artworks in their permanent collections. The London-based gallerist Ben Brown,
who also owns a gallery in Hong Kong, commented, “I think it’s the shift of
the price of things. When you have the suddenly so-called great contemporary
Chinese artists costing the same as a Picasso, mostly the collectors started buying
Picasso instead of the local artists.”
2012 to Today: The Auction Market Correction and Maturity.

The Rise of Art Fairs, Private Museums, and a New Focus on
Western Art
The Rise of the “Ultimate Collectors”
The Fosun Foundation in Shanghai was founded by one of China’s largest private
conglomerates, Fosun Group, which owns, has or had stakes in an international
portfolio of companies including Club Med, Cirque du Soleil, and Lanvin,
just to name a few. In 2010 Jenny Wang, Chairwoman of Fosun Foundation,
acquired her first Western artwork from a gallery to decorate her home. Today
Wang oversees the Fosun Foundation, which operates the Fosun Art Center
with over 300 Chinese and Western contemporary artworks in the Foundation’s
permanent collection. In November 2018, the Fosun Art Center held the first
photography exhibition of Cindy Sherman in China. In March 2019, it opened
the largest retrospective for Yayoi Kusama to date in China.
Qiao Zhibing, a Shanghai-based collector, bought his first Western contem-
porary artwork from a gallery in 2009. Today he has a private collection of over
500 Chinese and Western contemporary artworks. He has established a private
art museum in a space that exceeds 60,000 square meters: TANK Shanghai,
which has been transformed from a former oil storage facility to a contemporary
art exhibition and performance space in Shanghai’s West Bund. It opened in late
March 2019 with an exhibition of teamLab among other contemporary artists.
In 2015, collector Liu Yiqian acquired Amedeo Modigliani’s painting Nu
couché from Christie’s New York for USD 170 million. Liu’s private Long
Museum includes two branches in Shanghai, a third in Chongqing, and a fourth
in Wuhan. In total, the four Long Museums house thousands of artworks in Liu’s
permanent collection. In November 2018, the Long Museum in West Bund,
Shanghai held the most comprehensive exhibition of Louise Bourgeois in China

with a large-scale spider on loan from the Tate Modern in London.
This stage of the development of China’s art market features the emergence of
a group of important private museums in China that captured broad international
attention within just a few years. When individual collectors institutionalized
their art collections in private museums, they dedicated their long-term holdings
into exhibitions and research centers and began supporting public education.
Hu Yanyan, President of China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd., calls these types
of collectors and private museum owners the “Ultimate Collectors,” noting that
they are often “successful entrepreneurs from the most profitable industries who
have benefited from China’s rapid economic growth.” She believes that today’s
buying activities by the “Ultimate Collectors” contribute to over 80% of annual
auction turnover for China Guardian. She calls the phenomenon “a full upgrade
of the art market in China” that has shaped this current “transitional period.”
Zhang Rongde, Senior Vice President and Senior Specialist of Chinese
Classical Paintings at Sotheby’s, called the rise of private museums:
a remarkable development of China’s art market.... The increased number

of private museums in China over the past few years is probably no less
than that of any other country in the world. It is just a matter of time before
we find out how many of them will survive in the future. But judging
by the transition itself…from collectors previously only participating in
buying and selling in the art market, to professional collectors, and now
to collectors operating non-profit museums. This is substantial progress.
As discussed earlier, in 2012 the art auction market in China experienced a

significant decline in transactional value. Following the deep plunge in trading
activities after 2011, the annual total sales (hammer price and not including
buyer’s premium) over the following six years from 2012 to 2017 was about
RMB 30 billion (USD 4.5 billion), and the annual sales from 2018 to 2020 did
not surpass RMB 27 billion (USD 4 billion).35
When discussing the challenges that Chinese domestic auction houses face, Li
Xuesong, Deputy General Manager of Poly Auctions, commented:
First, the variety of auction categories is very limited: mostly Chinese art
(including paintings and works of art), not Western old masters are sold by
Chinese auction houses. Second, there are not enough new collectors and
connoisseurs entering the market (after the speculators exited). Often after
the sale of the top lot, we would hear the news that the artwork had been
acquired by a collector with whom we are familiar. This means that the
market is not yet well developed....
In 2010 and 2011, a lot of new participants in the market were from
the financial (equity market), real estate or energy (e.g., coal mining)
sectors, but in recent years, the regular top buyers have been successful
entrepreneurs whose businesses have established a strong track record in

China. For example, Zhang Guiping, Chairman of Suning Universe,
which is associated with one of the largest retailers, China Suning Group;
Wang Jianfeng, Chairman of Ningbo Junsheng Electronics, one of the
leading suppliers of LEDs in the country; and Li Guoxin, Chairman of
Levdeo New Energy Automobile.
Li Xuesong shares the same observation as Hu Yanyan from China

Guardian: That robust buying activities from these entrepreneurs ref lect a tran-
sition, an upgrading of the art market in China. Li said:
When they are aiming for holding an artwork for more than five or ten
years, they all want the best works. They would rather spend a significant
amount of capital to acquire a premium work than spend at a lower level to
purchase 10 mediocre works. This has become the pattern of buying among
all the top collectors. As a result (despite the decline in turnover since 2010
and 2011), the top lots always achieve high results at auction....Today the top
collectors are becoming mature. Demand for the highest-quality artworks
is strong....
Many of these collectors have dedicated most of their leisure time to
researching art and have become great connoisseurs. For example, I have a
client in Jiangsu Province who created a massive database of all the Chinese
classical paintings that you could find. He only bids on the paintings that
match the records in his database down to every detail, including the
movement of a stroke, signature, and seals. Even an auction house like ours
does not have (such a comprehensive database).
Despite the fact that collectors in the market have become more knowledge-
able in their collecting fields, Li Xuesong still feels there is a hurdle for domestic
auction houses to push above the current plateau.
The development of the auction business in China is distorted. In Western

countries, galleries, the primary market, and the secondary market each
play a distinctive role, with lots of talented people working in each field. In
China, it seems that too many resources and market professionals are overly
concentrating on the auction business. However, the auction business in its
nature lacks an incentive to foster the market over the long term. Specialists
like me are too busy with sourcing and meeting existing clients, I barely
have any time to nurture a new market.... I noticed that recently China
Guardian has launched art education courses. I am sure that they have also
recognized the problem and are trying to solve it.
The changes that Li Xuesong observed about his head-to-head competitor,

China Guardian, were spot on. Kou Qin, President and CEO of Guardian
Investment Holding Co. Ltd. and the General Manager of the Guardian Art
Center that opened in 2017, said:
The past years have witnessed a significant transformation of Guardian.

The auction house has expanded and restructured to become more diver-
sified, while holding onto a single shared and unified vision. It’s a new
turning point. Auction remains our core business, complemented by
other areas of business, including investment, an art center, education,
publishing, and a hotel. Take education, for example: The company has
more than 100,000 clients, holding a huge potential for the development
of professional and continuing education, as well as specialty training. The
launch of the Guardian Art Center also helps to increase our involvement
in the primary market.
Over the past few years, China Guardian has expanded its business from
auctions to much broader disciplines. Since 2014, it has partnered with an art fair
based in Hong Kong, Fine Art Asia, to host an art fair called Guardian Fine Art
Asia (GFAA) once a year in Beijing.
In 2016, China Guardian established a publishing business. Since the launch of
the auctioneer’s new headquarters in October 2017, the Guardian Art Center in
Beijing has held non-auction-related art exhibitions on an annual basis, in add-
ition to offering its annual sales previews and auctions. In November 2017, China
Guardian began a long-term partnership with SOAS University of London and
the Art Institute of Chicago to co-develop art education courses.
Back in the 1990s, Chen Dongsheng, founder of China Guardian, decided
to invest China Guardian’s capital in Taikang Life Insurance Company, which
he founded in 1996. Today, China Guardian is Taikang Life Insurance’s largest
domestic shareholder and has benefited substantially from Taikang’s tremendous
growth in China’s life insurance market.
In 2016, Taikang Life Insurance acquired 13.5% of Sotheby’s shares and became
the New York Stock Exchange-listed auctioneer’s largest shareholder, prior to
the company going private in 2019. When commenting on Taikang’s acquisi-
tion of Sotheby’s shares, Kou Qin President and CEO of Guardian Investment
Holding Co. Ltd. and General Manager of Guardian Art Center said:
For one, the two companies are like family now. We have had some
degrees of exchange on the condition that there would be no violation of
the business principles of each firm. We are certainly not engaged in any
kind of client or consignment swaps. It is not happening and, as a matter
of fact, not allowed....
Both parties were satisfied with the partnership. From the perspective of
investment, Sotheby’s stock rose immediately with Taikang’s investment,
which is a win-w in for both Taikang as the investor and the shareholders
of Sotheby’s. Most importantly, it’s a boost in confidence for the market.
To tap into the global art market has become an ambition for the two leading
auctioneers in China. In 2012 both Poly Auctions and China Guardian began
holding auctions in Hong Kong twice a year. Jiang Yingchun, CEO of Poly
Culture Group, the parent company of Poly Auctions, said “Opening an office
in Hong Kong was our first step, because at least you need to try. If you cannot
find your place in Hong Kong, then it wouldn’t be possible for you to expand to
London or New York.”
Over the past few years, Poly Auctions was in conversation regarding a poten-
tial acquisition of the British auction house Bonhams. In the end, the two com-
panies were not able to reach an agreement. In September 2018, Bonhams was
sold to a private equity company based in London, Epiris. Looking ahead from
2019, Jiang Yingchun predicted:
Over the next 5 years, we (Poly Auctions) hope to transform ourselves to

an international company and offer all the services that are available in
the industry, including art dealing, art investment and consulting, etc. It
will really be important to focus on diversification. This includes Western
works of art, especially the field of Western contemporary art.
Foreign Auctioneers in China

When domestic auction houses were planning for international expansion,
international auctioneers including Sotheby’s and Christie’s made efforts to start
holding auctions in mainland China, in order to capture the market potential.
Back in 1988, Sotheby’s held a charity auction at the Working People’s
Cultural Palace in Beijing to raise funds for the restoration of the Great Wall
in China and restoration in Venice, Italy. But the real goal for Sotheby’s was to
hold regular auctions in mainland China. This did not happen until 2012, when
the company formed a joint venture with the state-owned enterprise Beijing
Gehua Group, creating Sotheby’s (Beijing) Auction Co. Ltd. From 2013 to 2015,
the joint venture entity held auctions twice a year in Beijing in the categories
of Chinese contemporary art and Chinese contemporary ink and organized a
couple of selling exhibitions of Western paintings, decorative art and jewelry in
Beijing. Sotheby’s (Beijing) Auction’s last sale was held in 2015, and since then
the auctioneer has not held another auction in mainland China.
A former senior member of staff at Sotheby’s (Beijing), who prefers to stay
anonymous, explained that it had been challenging for an international auction
house to operate in mainland China. First of all, according to the Law of
Protection of Cultural Relics, foreign auctioneers are not allowed to sell cul-
tural relics in this market. Therefore, the only categories that they could auction
were Chinese and Western contemporary art. Secondly, if mainland Chinese
collectors acquired Western artworks and wanted to bring them to their domestic
residences, they would have to pay importation tax plus VAT (value-added tax).
The two taxes combined would create a tax load of approximately 20%. As
a result, collectors preferred to buy Western artworks in free-port cities such

as Hong Kong or New York. Initially, Sotheby’s established a joint venture in
Beijing, hoping that the law would change one day to allow foreign auctioneers
to sell cultural relics (Chinese modern and classical paintings; Chinese works of
art), which still remain the categories that generate the largest art trading turn-
over in the country. However, without this occurring in the short term, and the
business of Chinese contemporary art becoming challenging, Sotheby’s decided
to suspend their auctions in mainland China and continued to focus on Hong
Kong as the company’s primary trading center in Asia.
In 2005, Beijing Forever International Auction Company was established
with the right to license the Christie’s brand. The local auction house offered
sales in three categories including Chinese modern paintings, Chinese works
of art, and 20th-century Chinese paintings and contemporary art. The com-
pany adopted Christie’s professional practices, but the scale of its sales was much
smaller than other leading domestic players. For example, in 2011 when China’s
art auction market reached its peak, the annual sales of China Guardian were
RMB 11.23 billion (USD 1.7 billion), and the total sale result of Beijing Forever
was RMB 280 million (USD 43 million), 2.5% of what China Guardian
achieved.
When Sotheby’s entered the joint venture partnership with Beijing Gehua
Group in 2012, Christie’s was also eager to break into the mainland Chinese
market as an independent force. In April 2013, Christie’s successfully registered
a wholly owned foreign enterprise in Shanghai and received the license to hold
non-cultural relic auctions in mainland China. In September 2013 Christie’s
offered its first auction in Shanghai under this new entity. That same year, the
business of Beijing Forever International Auction Company was dissolved.
In the beginning Christie’s held auctions in Shanghai twice a year, one in
the spring and another in the fall, where the lots offered were in the categories
of Chinese and Western contemporary art, contemporary design, and lifestyle
collectibles like jewelry, watches and alcohol. Since 2016, Christie’s combined
the two sales into one auction season in the fall. In 2019, before the outbreak
of the pandemic which disrupted the global auction calendar, there were three
auctions held in Shanghai during one week in September, and the result achieved
through these auctions was RMB 148 million (USD 21 million).36
This amount is significantly smaller than the amount Christie’s accomplished
in its sales season in Hong Kong, where a broader variety of categories and much
higher value of artworks were offered. For comparison, in the 2019 Fall sales
season, Christie’s Hong Kong achieved a total result of HKD 2.63 billion (USD
337 million),37 almost 16 times that in the Shanghai auctions during the same
period.
In March 2022, Christie’s moved its Shanghai office to a premium location
in the city, in a hundred-year-old historical building called BUND ONE. On
March 1st, the auction house’s Shanghai and London offices held a relay auction
series which started with a 20th/21st-century art evening sale in Shanghai,
followed by another evening sale of the same category in London, both were live
streamed at Christie’s auction rooms in Hong Kong and New York.38
In September 2022, the Shanghai municipal government announced a new
regulation called The Regulations of Shanghai Pudong New Area Cultural Relics
and Works of Art Transactions,39 which stated a goal of establishing a Shanghai
International Cultural Relics and Artwork Trading Service Center in Pudong
District. In fact, one year earlier, Christie’s Shanghai set up an art storage at the
Shanghai International Art Bonded Service Center VIP Warehouse.40 While
the Shanghai government aspires to establish an International Cultural Relics
and Works of Art Trading Center41 in the city, the newly issued regulation still
prevents Western companies from trading Chinese cultural relics. Due to the
strict regulatory environment and fierce competition in mainland China, and
like Sotheby’s joint venture in Beijing, it would be challenging for Christie’s to
substantially scale up its business in this market. Hong Kong will likely remain
the major trading center for Christie’s in Asia.
It is fair to say that as long as the regulatory restriction on foreign auctioneers
selling cultural relics in China remains unchanged, and the tax on importing
artworks from overseas markets to mainland China does not substantially
decrease, international auctioneers will have a hard time catching up to the
domestic players in this competitive environment.
The Rise of Art Fairs and Private Museums and a New Focus on
Western Art
Although at this stage of development, China’s art auction market did not change
as drastically as the earlier two stages, a pivotal transformation occurred with a
boom in art fairs, private museums and a new focus on Western art. Such change
indicated that the market in China was maturing from the earlier stages in which
auctions had been the key driver of growth to a new stage where the importance
of the primary market was being recognized by serious collectors. For example,
collectors such as Jenny Wang and Qiao Zhibing now rely on galleries and art
fairs as the primary channels for collecting. Collector Liu Gang, who was an
active buyer at auction in the 1990s and early 2000s, now acquires 95% of his
artworks from galleries and art fairs. In 2015, when he bought a sculpture by
Tomas Saraceno at ArcoMadrid, it was a turning point for him to include more
Western art in his private collection.
Today there are about 20 leading art fairs in mainland China, most of which
are dedicated to Chinese and Western contemporary arts. In 2013, one year after
Hong Kong International Art Fair (ART HK) was acquired by MCH Group
and rebranded as Art Basel Hong Kong, two collectors and business owners,
David Chau and Kelly Ying, started a contemporary art fair in Shanghai called
Art021. In 2014, another art fair, endorsed by the Shanghai municipal govern-
ment, West Bund Art and Design Fair, was launched by a Chinese contemporary
artist Zhou Tiehai. Since 2014, the two art fairs have been held the same week
every November. That week is now branded as Shanghai Art Week, when local
private museums and art galleries open their new exhibitions in parallel to attract
a large number of domestic and international visitors.
The two art fairs have slightly different positioning. Whereas Art021 focuses
on galleries that are edgier and represent a younger generation of artists (with
a lower price range of artworks), West Bund Art and Design Fair has attracted
many Western blue-chip galleries, including Pace Gallery, Gagosian, Hauser &
Worth, Levy Gorvy and Ben Brown. One feature that both art fairs have in
common is that the demographic of exhibitors has been international. Before the
outbreak of the pandemic,42 in November 2019, 110 galleries from 57 cities in 18
countries exhibited at Art021,43 and 97 galleries from 18 countries participated
in the West Bund Art and Design Fair.44 The total number of visitors to the two
art fairs in Shanghai in 2019 exceeded 70,000.45
Miety Heiden, Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Head of Private Sales at
Phillips, asserted that the Chinese collectors “are becoming more comfortable
buying at art fairs,” because “it’s like going to the supermarket, you have access
to a lot. Through the internet and Instagram, people can get connected very
quickly and they know what everybody wants. It goes through very fast.”
Today many Chinese private museum owners are also active collectors of
Western art. In 2017 Qiao Zhibing was one of the collectors who bought an
artwork from Damien Hirst’s selling exhibition in Venice, Italy, Treasures from
the Wreck of the Unbelievable. He admitted that although there is not much of a
difference in the number of works in his collections of Western and Chinese art,
“Western contemporary artworks are relatively more expensive, so I spent more
money on them.”
Zheng Hao, collector and founder of the private museum How Art Museum,
owns the largest collection of Joseph Beuys’s works in China. How Art Museum’s
inaugural exhibition, which opened in Shanghai in September 2017, showed Julian
Rosefeldt’s multi-screen film installation Manifesto, which featured the Australian
actress Cate Blanchett. It was the first time that the film installation was exhibited
in Asia.
When talking about the curatorial strategy of How Art Museum moving for-
ward, the museum’s deputy director Zhang Li said:
I think for the next 3 to 5 years, we will continue to choose artists and
projects with a more international perspective and choose inf luential
international artists. We need to face the local audience. Because from the
public’s perspective they want to open up their horizons and interact with
top level international exhibitions.
Collector and owner of the Long Museum Liu Yiqian agreed:
Speaking from what the public wants to see and also from an aesthetics
point of view, Chinese audiences are getting more and more interested
in exhibitions of famous Western artists because they might not get the
chance to see their works even though they travel abroad. Well-k nown star
artists from the West can create better publicity.
When discussing this collecting trajectory, the Beijing-based collector Yang

Bin said:
The younger generation in China, who have been educated from abroad
and then come back, definitely cannot understand traditional Chinese
artworks anymore. China has become more open and more international
and this trend cannot be stopped, especially when information travels so
quickly through modern media channels and the internet.
A Fast-Learning Market Nurtured by Western Galleries

When looking back on the development of the market since 2012, Evelyn Lin,
Deputy Chairman, International Director and Head of Department of Asian 20th
Century & Contemporary Art at Christie’s was amazed by how fast the collectors
in China learned about Western art and adapted to the international art market.
I think the (Chinese) art market had a unique feature, which you won’t
be able to find in any other markets. They (the Chinese collectors) have
compressed the learning process. In the past, there was no professional
market practice. But within the past decade, many buyers have become
true collectors. Such a learning process in general takes a long time in the
West to establish, but it took a short period of time in China. You can
transform a person within such a short timeframe.
Evelyn Lin believed that the effort made by Western galleries to nurture the
market and the broad international travel of these collectors helped them over-
come the learning deficit within a short period of time.
Western galleries have been playing a pivotal role in the Asian market.
They brought many international artists to the Asian market and a two-
way interactive relationship developed. Moreover, many Chinese collectors
started to show up at different large art fairs like TEFAF, FIAC, and Frieze,
and they have visited basically all of these fairs. So Chinese collectors have
broadened their horizons and begun to understand more things at different
levels of the market.
Jiang Yingchun, CEO of Poly Culture Group, echoed Lin’s observations:
(Integrating China’s art market with the global art market) had great
prospects but relying solely on auction houses was not enough.... I really
admire the work done by international galleries like Pace and Gagosian.
These galleries have been continually working on putting out various
exhibitions.... Apart from the business side, we need more communication
and understanding… (to) ref lect the artists’ thinking about existence and
to really let us contemplate these things.
Liu Yiqian, collector and founder of Long Museum, ref lected on his own
experience of buying Western art over the past years: “Collecting is a process.
I don’t think it is that difficult to do. You can go to well-k nown galleries to see
Western contemporary works. They will all gather around you and talk about
how many good works they have.”
Collector Qiao Zhibing and owner of TANK Shanghai has also formed a
strong network with Western galleries.
If I am going to New York, I will want to visit an artist’s studio. It is also

possible that the gallery has arranged the visit. The odds are I will probably
like it after the visit and then buy the work. I visit artist studios every-
where I go.
Although Chinese modern and classical paintings and works of art are likely
to continue to dominate 70% or more of the total annual auction turnover, we
can foresee that in the near future, more collectors, particularly the younger
generation of collectors, will actively acquire Western art through the pri-
mary market. More Western galleries will try to penetrate the Chinese market,
through launching an office, attending local art fairs, representing Chinese con-
temporary artists, or supporting local private museums by facilitating exhibitions
of Western artists.
On the museum side, whereas the state-owned museums will remain the
powerhouses of collecting, researching and exhibiting traditional Chinese art,
local private museums have taken on a more active role of promoting Western
contemporary art in China. As Jenny Wang, Chairwoman of Fosun Art
Foundation said, “Contemporary art is more suitable for private art museums.
I think state art museums should take on more responsibility to study and restore
traditional art.”
Jiang Yingchun, CEO of Poly Culture Group predicted:
The trend of (collecting) Western art and contemporary art will absolutely
continue. China will go through mostly the same path as Western coun-
tries, but we might take less time than they did. We might only need 3 to
5 years to finish what they took 30 years to complete, because the times are
changing and information travels at a much faster speed now.
Jiang Yingchun firmly believes that the future transformation of the market
will be driven by a younger generation of collectors.
The community of collectors is getting younger and more diverse in

China. It has been 40 years since China opened up. The first group of
entrepreneurs has begun to plan for their retirement after their success and
they are handing over their companies to the second or third generation.
These new people are very different from the older generation in terms
of educational background and experiences. All these differences will be
ref lected in their art collecting behaviors and different preferences and
taste, which will bring big changes to the art market.
Notes
1 https://d ata.worldba nk.org/count ry/china
www.census.gov/foreign-t rade/stat istics/h igh lights/top/top1810 yr.html.
2 http://collection.sina.com.cn/cpsc/2018–08–29/doc-i hikcahf1646302.shtml.
3 http://collection.sina.com.cn/cpsc/2018–08–29/doc-i hikcahf1646302.shtml.
4 https:// f ash i on.ifeng.com/ n ews/ d et a i l _ 2 012 _ 0 6/ 0 4/ 1 50 2 178 1 _ 0 .shtm l?_
from_ralated.
5 www.sohu.com/a/437404569_114988.
6 Taikang was no longer a Sotheby’s shareholder after Sotheby’s was sold to French
businessman Patrick Drahi in 2019.
7 www.chinaf i le.com/conver sat ion/what-would-china-look-today-had-zhao-z iya ng-
survived.
8 www.xzbu.com/3/v iew-4287120.htm.
9 https://news.art ron.net/20181011/n1026535.html.
10 http://iec.cfcr.org.cn/?s=news-read-id-207.html.
11 www.ncha.gov.cn/a rt/2013/3/15/a rt_2318 _24996.html.
12 www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/w xzl/gongbao/2002–10/29/content_5301641.htm.
13 关于对申领和颁发文物拍卖许可证有关事项的通知 (文物博发[2003]95号文件).
14 China Antiques & Artworks Auction Market Statistical Annual Report 2017, the
China Association of Auctioneers.
15 关于拍卖企业经营文物拍卖许可相关事宜的通知.
16 China Art Market Annual Report 2012 by Ministry of Culture, PRC.
17 https://news.artron.net/20070118/n 20946.html.
18 China Art Market Annual Report 2012, Ministry of Culture of PRC.
19 From 2003 to 2011, the Chinese currency Yuan appreciated over 20%.
20 https://news.artron.net/20100811/n117698.html.
21 www.poly.com.cn/.
22 http://j jckb.xinhuanet.com/i nvest/2013– 02/18/content _429018.htm.
23 www.zgn f ys.com/a/n fms-2522.shtml.
24 http://jing ji.cntv.cn/special/y ishupi npaomo/20111027/104837.shtml.
25 www.fokum-jams.org/i ndex.php/jams/a rticle/v iew/65/129.
26 https://sothebys.gcs-web.com/stat ic-f iles/9567c652-c492– 481e-9b70-a4a0248cb32f.
27 www.nyti mes.com/2 006/04/01/a rts/design/china-t he-new-contempor arya rt-f ront
ier.html.
28 http://a rt.people.com.cn/GB/41138/41139/4877957.html.
29 www.artprice.com/a rtmarketi nsig ht/chinese-contempora ry-a rt-today.
30 TEFAF Art Market Report, 2010.
31 https://i mgpubl ic.artpr ice.com/pdf/edition_ ar t_ st age _ cn-en_onl i ne.pdf.
32 www.magnusrenfrew.com/.
33 www.galler iacontinua.com/about/beiji ng/h istory.
34 www.artnews.com/2009/11/17/sothebys-auct ion- depth-of-bidd i ng-on-a ll-levels/.
35 Based on the data provided by China Antiques & Artworks Auction Market Statistical
Annual Report by China Association of Auctioneers. The Association had not
released the annual report in 2021 and 2022 when the book was published.
36 www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/9498/R ELEASE_ 2019%20SH ANGH AI%20
AUTUMN%20SALES%20RESU LTS_9498 _1.pdf.
37 www.christ ies.com/featu res/Aut u mn-auctions- Christ ies-Hong-Kong-2 019-Wrap-
Report-10233–3.aspx.
38 www.christies.com/about-us/press-a rchive/detai ls?PressReleaseID=10345&lid=1.
39 https://chs.meet-i n-shanghai.net/t ravel-class/news-deta il.php?id=61716.
40 http://sh.people.com.cn/n 2/2021/0913/c134768–34911648.html.
41 https://chs.meet-i n-shanghai.net/t ravel-class/news-deta il.php?id=61716.
42 Due to COVID-19, the PRC closed its borders for over three years, which critically
impacted the domestic art fairs.
43 https://a rt021.org/w p-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-A RT021-%E9%97%AD%E5
%B9%95%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB%E7%A8%BF.pdf.
4 4 https://m-news.art ron.net/news/20220727/n1372761.html.
45 https://isha re.ifeng.com/c/s/7vAFGh9at m6.
3
EXPECTATIONS FOR THE MARKET
When Swiss-born Lorenz Helbling came to mainland China in the mid-1990s

and founded ShanghArt Gallery in Shanghai, it was not an easy start.
One year I was working in an artist’s studio and I had the idea that I could
open a gallery. Of course, I needed money. I saw many restaurants open
with no art on the walls, so I talked to them and said I could put paintings
on their walls. I started to do exhibitions. It was the beginning of a new
(era). Shanghai had just opened up and the first modern-style restaurants
opened, but you couldn’t open a freestanding gallery.
Eventually, Helbling recalled, “I finally found a place in The Portman Hotel

in Shanghai. It’s a big hotel that had empty walls, so I asked whether I could use
the walls to do exhibitions.” In the early stages of his gallery business, he did
not have to pay rent to The Portman Hotel, which was a popular five-star hotel
among foreign diplomats, journalists and expatriates in Shanghai.
The Portman was a special hotel back then. The Wall Street Journal, New York
Times, all the newspapers’ bureaus were there. Consulates, travel agencies,
restaurants were all there too, so it was more than a hotel. It was really kind
of a center in Shanghai.
Nevertheless, generating even a single sale of an artwork was extremely dif-

ficult, recalled Helbling:
It was thought impossible. People said it was hopeless to do something

there. But art was around and the hotel had empty walls, so somehow
I started. They (Portman staff ) were happy: I think the directors and
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-4
Expectations for the Market 59
managers of the hotel liked the art, and they said if you like you can start
using it (the empty walls). I had a desk and a table, that was it, and a few
walls. My expectation was very low and everybody told me it was impos-
sible to sell anything, so I was just trying to do a good exhibition.
Despite the challenge of starting the business, Helbling felt fortunate that
competition was low. “I was here and nobody else was doing something. And
the impact was quite big. Shanghai was small, and if we had a new exhibition,
all the ex-pats living here came, and the media made some reports.” During the
first month of opening his gallery, inf luential international collectors such as
Guy Ullens began to visit and acquire works through Helbling.
In a period of nearly three decades, Helbling has turned ShanghArt into one
of the most well-respected galleries in Asia, with branches in Shanghai, Beijing
and Singapore. It represents over fifty renowned artists, most of whom are
Chinese, including Yang Fudong, Zeng Fanzhi, and Ding Yi. The internation-
ally acclaimed Thai film maker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul is also on
the roster of the gallery. When the Shanghai municipal government decided to
develop the West Bund into a central area for local private museums, galleries
and art fairs, they offered a special rental deal to Helbling to relocate ShanghArt
from Moganshan Road to West Bund in 2016.
Before the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, ShanghArt Gallery participated
in about 16 art fairs worldwide per year. When looking ahead to the future of the
art market in China, Helbling stays optimistic:
People here (in China) in the past liked nice things and collected art. They
had generations of collecting things and collecting was a way to live. Now
in Shanghai there are 28 million people, and we can do so much more here.
Helbling’s optimism is shared by many other professionals who have been

working in the market for a long time. Gallerist Ben Brown observed:
I think that more and more mainland Chinese collectors will appear on
the scene and probably become a more important force in the world for
contemporary art. I think there are certain people in mainland China who
have a lot of money which they can put in contemporary art. Because
there are many wealthy people who have not bought any art before, they
will begin to buy. I’m optimistic that more and more mainland Chinese
wealthy people will become collectors over the next few years.
Miety Heiden, Deputy Chairman and Global Head of Private Sales at Phillips
said “There is still a lot of money f loating around in the system and people are
still very interested in buying great art.”
However, there are challenges that have been recognized by many dealers and
collectors. The current economic environment in China, the slowdown of GDP
growth and the uncertainty around the US-China relationship appeared to be

the biggest concerns for collectors to continue expanding their art collections.
As noted by David Norman, a private art dealer, “The (US-China) trade war
and falling market have already led to less buying by the Chinese at Western
auctions.”
Los Angeles-based dealer Clare Chu predicted:
If the mainland Chinese collectors are allowed to transfer their cash outside
of China, then they can go and find art and antiques with good provenances
to bring home. If these newly rich collectors can’t spend their money out-
side China, then the only place they can buy is in mainland China.
Since 2012 the annual turnover for domestic auctioneers in mainland China
has not exceeded ~RMB 30 billion (USD 4.5 billion). Zhu Junbo, the first
General Manager of Shanghai Duo Yun Xuan Auction House, observed:
This amount (RMB 30 billion), compared with the tremendous personal

wealth among the HNWI in China, is a tiny number. I think, therefore,
(the fact that the market has hit a plateau) is not a monetary problem. Part
of the reason is that many collectors were hurt during the market decline
from 2011 to 2012 and are reluctant to bring their high-quality artworks
into the market now.
Zhu Junbo believes collectors are afraid that the current market is not strong
enough for them to achieve high prices if they sell artworks from their private
collections.
Li Xuesong, Deputy General Manager of Poly Auction, predicted that China’s
art auction market will stay relatively f lat (at the RMB 30 billion level or less)
over the next few years. He feels that the current plateau is caused by the lack of
overall professionalism and connoisseurship of many staff members who work at
the local auction houses. Solving this problem will take time and the transform-
ation cannot be completed in a few years. In terms of the impact of the economic
environment, Li believes that the inf luence will be more indirect and related to
the confidence of collectors, many of whom are private business owners.
The research and interviews conducted for this book have provided insights
into what the top players are thinking and what has fundamentally been occurring
in China’s art market. Based on these findings, I have developed a future out-
look for China’s art market that while broad, offers a generalized view of where
I believe the market is going.
Overall turnover in the secondary market is not expected to return to the
levels last seen in 2011. There are two main reasons: First, in 2011 a substan-
tial number of participants who were not interested in art and did not under-
stand art actively participated in auction activities. During the market adjustment
over the past decade, this demographic has mostly filtered out of the art market.
Second, these participants often borrowed capital for their art trading. When
these participants disappeared from the market, the associated capital and finan-
cial organizations supporting such activities also faded away.
In addition, changes designed to stimulate growth are not expected to occur
in the regulatory environment over the near to mid-term. For example, an
opening-up policy to allow Western auctioneers to sell cultural relics in mainland
China so that they can compete directly with domestic auctioneers, is unlikely.
And a change in policy to create a significant tax benefit for collectors to estab-
lish private museums or make donations (in monetary form or in artworks) to art
organizations is also unlikely to occur.
Near-term future development of the art market will in part depend on the
tax load of importing into mainland China artworks that were acquired overseas
and on the friction of converting RMB into foreign currencies. It is possible that
the regulatory environment could be relaxed for these two factors because the
former (tax) is being driven by continuous lobbying efforts by domestic industry
players like Chinese auctioneers, and the latter (currency) may be shaped by a
potentially improving economic environment or substantial policy shift.
An increasing number of younger-generation HNWIs will

begin to collect art. The acquisition of Western art will
continue to expand.
The rise of a younger generation of collectors in China as a new driving force
in the art market has been widely recognized by many professionals in the
industry. Evelyn Lin, Deputy Chairman, International Director and Head of
the Department of Asian 20th Century & Contemporary Art at Christie’s said:
A group of collectors born in the 1980s has emerged in this market, and
they have very different ambitions and collecting interests compared with
collectors born in the 1970s. Among those born in the 1980s, for example,
a group of people are collecting works by KAWS. They could be under
peer inf luence, like they might follow trendy things on Instagram. Many
collectors born in the 1980s don’t have the language barrier (of speaking
only Chinese), so they can connect with the international market and get
information easily. This is a new trend now, because they are following
(the) international market instead of the Chinese market.
As collector and founder of How Art Museum, Zheng Hao said:
Whether they (the younger generation of collectors) are spending more

than their parents’ generation, whether the newly rich are interested in
contemporary art or not, I think they are still in the process of exploring.
By the time they are age 40 or 50, new supply and demand relationships
might emerge.... Whoever controls the market of people born after the
1980s, 1990s and 2000s, will control the auction market and the overall
art market.
Many collectors in this youthful demographic have an overseas education

and thus the English language is less of a barrier for them compared to an older
generation of collectors (i.e., collectors in their 50s or 60s). The young tend to
follow the news of the international art market closely and are well-connected on
global social network platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Due
to their educational background and cultural upbringing, they often find the
collecting categories of Chinese antiquities (Chinese works of art and Chinese
paintings) less appealing. They are more attracted to Western and Chinese con-
temporary art.
Qiao Zhibing, collector and founder of TANK Shanghai, observed that
“Now when the new Chinese collectors enter the market, they immediately
start to buy Western art, because their educational background is different. Many
have lived abroad.”
Collector Yang Bin echoed this statement.
The younger generation in China, that has been educated abroad and then
come back, definitely cannot understand traditional Chinese artworks any-
more. China has become more open and more international. This trend
cannot be stopped, especially when information travels so quickly through
contemporary media and the Internet.
This group of young Chinese collectors in general buys art from art fairs and
galleries, their primary collecting channels. They also frequently trade art among
their circles of friends. Art fairs are a popular collecting channel because they are
event-d riven and offer excellent occasions for photo posting on social media and
status signaling.
Buying at auctions serves as a secondary collecting channel for young
collectors. As Miety Heiden, from Phillips, noted:
(While) they’ve been far more active with the primary galleries than with
the auctions, they do buy at the auctions, because sometimes they cannot
get access to the primary galleries’ artists who are very hot and popular,
like Richter, Nara, Kusama, Kaws and Gokita.
Their collecting behavior is very similar to that of the same generation of

collectors in Western countries. Heiden said “I see the Chinese buyers behaving
in the same way as the Western buyers or other Asian buyers. Since they operate
in an international market they hear and see the same as other collectors.”
Often their funding for art collecting comes in part from an earlier generation
within their families. This makes the longevity of their collecting journey and
the magnitude of their buying power dependent both on their family’s ability
to continuously generate wealth and on the capital provided by the earlier gen-
eration for them to collect art. It is likely that it will take some time for this
demographic to acquire an artwork with values above the USD 10-m illion or
100-m illion level, but their active buying activities through galleries and art fairs
will help foster a healthier development of the primary art market in China.
More international galleries will enter China’s market. Local

galleries will have a tougher time surviving the increased
competition. With domestic galleries facing more challenges, a
consolidation of local art fairs will take place.
The second chapter of this book identified that in recent years, particularly driven
by the popularity of Art021 and West Bund Art and Design fairs in Shanghai,
more Western galleries have begun to penetrate the Chinese market by either
opening a space or participating in local art fairs. The trend is set to continue
with an increasing number of international galleries recognizing the opportunity
to capture the growth of the primary Chinese market.
Although Pace Gallery closed its Beijing branch located in the 798 Art District
2019 after eleven years of operation1 and James Cohen Gallery closed its Shanghai
space in 2015 after seven years,2 these decisions did not deter more Western blue-
chip galleries from expanding to mainland China. In March 2019 Lisson Gallery
opened a space on the “Museum Road” in Shanghai, “alongside some of the city’s
major museums and cultural institutions, including the Rockbund Art Museum
and Fosun Foundation.”3 The inaugural group exhibition, Love is Metaphysical
Gravity, exhibited artworks by Marina Abramović, Shirazeh Houshiary, Richard
Long and Tatsuo Miyajima.4 In October 2021 Lehmann Maupin opened a
space in Beijing located in Blanc Art Space in the Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade
Zone. The first exhibition was a solo show of London-based artist Chantal Joffe,
followed by an exhibition for New York-based artist Marilyn Minter. In parallel
with the two solo shows, the gallery exhibited artworks by McArthur Binion,
Lee Bul, Billy Childish, Angel Otero, and Lari Pittman as part of the programs
in Beijing.5 In August 2022 Lisson Gallery launched a branch in Beijing, located
in the same Tianzhu Free Trade Zone.6 The inaugural show exhibited a group
of recent paintings by Anish Kapoor.7 In fact, in October 2019, Lisson Gallery
provided substantial support to Kapoor’s first monographic museum exhibition
in China, jointly held at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum and the
Taimiao Art Museum of the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing. It was curated
by “Academic Consultant Fan Di’an (President of China Artists Association and
the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA)), together with Artistic Director Su
Xinping (Vice President of CAFA), Chief Curator Zhang Zikang (Director of
CAFA Art Museum), Curator Wang Chunchen (Deputy Director of CAFA Art
Museum), Curator Yue Jieqiong (Executive Director of Taimiao Art Museum),
and Curatorial Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist (Director of the Serpentine Galleries,
London).”8 While opening the first branch in Shanghai in 2019, Lisson’s effort
to facilitate Kapoor’s immense museum exhibition in Beijing in the same year
undoubtedly paved the way for the launch of its gallery in the city with Kapoor’s
first gallery show in China three years later. In September 2022, the Italian
gallery MASSIMODECARLO announced that it opened a permanent space
in Beijing which is located in the same free trade zone. The first show was for
New York-based artist Sanford Biggers. It is apparent that the free trade zone has
formed a cluster of permanent exhibition spaces for Western galleries.
Due to the existing challenges of the heavy tax burden of bringing artworks
made overseas into China and the difficulties of converting RMB into for-
eign currencies, the Western galleries that do not have a physical presence in
mainland China are likely to explore innovative ways to reduce these complex-
ities and enable domestic Chinese collectors to buy art. For instance, Western
gallery owners might have artworks produced within mainland China or partner
with Chinese galleries or private museums for exhibitions or art projects. Some
Western galleries might start working with art finance service providers to
design a collateral-based payment structure to help collectors clear these hurdles.
With more Western galleries aggressively expanding their inf luence in the
Chinese market, domestic galleries will have an even tougher time surviving
the competition. Some galleries might be forced to close their physical premises
and generate sales revenue by participating in art fairs or online sales. Some are
likely to seek collaboration with Western galleries to offer services to benefit
both parties.
Such transformation will bring more challenges to Chinese contemporary
art as a stand-a lone collecting category. The turnover of the category is unlikely
to return to its peak period of 2006 and 2007. Prices of works by the Chinese
contemporary artists who are represented by Western blue-chip galleries will
remain steady. But those artists who sell directly from their own studios or are
represented by smaller-scale domestic galleries under competitive pressures will
have an increasingly difficult time justifying the sustainable long-term market
value of their artworks.
At the moment there are a number of art fairs in China that have a strong
focus on Chinese contemporary art. When some domestic galleries have diffi-
culties surviving and are forced to close their shops, the local art fairs dedicated
to Chinese contemporary art will find it challenging to generate enough sales
from rentals of their booths.
A consolidation of art fairs is expected to take place in China. A “winners-
take-a ll” scenario is likely to happen. Most of the top-tier domestic collectors
who buy contemporary art collect both Chinese and Western contemporary art.
They are world travelers and tend to visit all the leading international art fairs.
Their collecting territory is not constrained to mainland China and the domestic
market. Therefore, the market in China is not big enough to sustain a large
number of contemporary art fairs.
Domestic auctioneers will experience a transformation with

diversified practices and increased international expansion.
The ambition of expanding into the global art market, which has been fully
expressed by the leading Chinese auctioneers, will continue into the future. As
Jiang Yingchun, CEO of Poly Culture Group, parent company of Poly Auction,
admitted:
We are gradually developing in the direction of internationalization, but

we are not an international auction house. We still cannot compare with
Christie’s and Sotheby’s in terms of global revenue, categories of works,
and the level of internationalization of our organization....
Internationalization means you need to think about who your clients
are. Contemporary art is precisely about globalization, and this next step is
important to focus on.
In November 2020 Poly Auction began to collaborate with the international

auction house Phillips to jointly hold auctions in Hong Kong.9 Since then, the
two auctioneers have co-hosted auctions twice a year in Hong Kong, where
works by Western artists were offered, including Gerhard Richter, Salman Toor
and Shara Hughes. By relying on Phillips’ expertise in sourcing artworks in the
category of Western modern and contemporary art, the initiative fits well with
what Jiang described as Poly Auction’s corporate vision of internationalization.
Philips benefits from Poly Auction’s Chinese collector base and would be nurt-
uring a new generation of Chinese collectors through this collaboration.
There is no reason to believe that Poly Auction’s globalization strategy will
stop here. Given the fact that it tried to acquire Bonhams in 2014 (though the
two auctioneers were not able to reach an agreement in the end), we can foresee
that with better timing and an improved economic environment, it is likely that
Poly Auction would continue its internationalization by acquiring a Western
auction house and further diversifying its practice in the international art market.
China Guardian began diversifying its business starting in 2013. In addition
to the core auction business, it has launched other practice areas including art
investment, an art center, education, publishing and a hotel.
In October 2019, Sotheby’s announced the transfer of the ownership of
the company to the media entrepreneur and art collector Patrick Drahi with
the transaction valued at USD 3.7 billion.10 Subsequently, China Guardian’s
founder Chen Dongsheng’s Taikang Insurance Company, also the largest cor-
porate shareholder of China Guardian, liquidated its 13.5% stake in Sotheby’s.
Although China Guardian no longer has a direct financial stake in Sotheby’s,
the Chinese auction house’s interest in Western art has not diminished. In May
2021, Gerhard Richter’s 1968 painting, Columns, was sold at China Guardian for
RMB 80 million (USD 12 million), the highest amount achieved for a Western
artwork in an auction in mainland China.11 In November 2021, China Guardian
launched its first Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in Beijing. Four
paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, and Picasso offered at the auction were
all sold, and the auction achieved sales of RMB 240 million (USD 37 million).
To transform into truly global players, both auction houses will have to over-
come a couple of challenges. The first is creating a well-respected brand on the
global stage. It will take a long time to accomplish this goal and to win long-term
trust from a core group of international collectors; it simply cannot be realized
by a few cross-border acquisitions. The second challenge is recruiting sufficient
talent to enable alignment with international best practices to help the companies
assimilate into the international art market.
Despite the fact that these Chinese auction houses have enjoyed strong global
rankings in terms of annual sales turnover, it will take some time for them to
fully address these challenges and become real international players.
A number of private museums will not be able to break

even and will have to close. Their collections might be sold
in the secondary market, passed on to their families’ next
generation, or donated to state museums.
For private museum owners, breaking even appears to be a common objective,
which they have found quite challenging. The annual operating cost for private
museums varies from under USD 1 million to more than USD 6 million based
on my survey for the TEFAF report.12 Although these museums could recover
some of the costs through ticket sales, venue rental (i.e., to selected luxury brands
for events), and corporate sponsorship, such efforts have been attempted and
revenues have not been sufficient to enable the museums to break even. Most of
the operational funding still comes from the museum founders’ own resources.
The continuous, significant amount of spending to operate a museum has
been recognized by many private museum owners as a never-ending challenge.
As Jenny Wang, collector and Chairwoman of Fosun Foundation said “How to
break even? For an art museum, I think this is an issue that won’t disappear. All
the private museums face this problem. I think it is very hard.”
Some of these museums hope to create nonprofit art foundations that have
the infrastructure and ability to fundraise. The biggest challenge for such an
endeavor is that without tax benefits and regulatory support, soliciting donations
from the public is difficult.
Based on her own experience, Jenny Wang said “So many art museums plan to
raise money through fundraising, but fundraising is quite challenging in China.”
Jiang Yingchun, CEO of Poly Culture Group, commented:
Building and operating museums is difficult work and we don’t have a very
complete museum system here compared with Western countries. There
are fewer preferential measures like tax deductions that can be applied to
private companies with museums here in China. For example, Liu Yiqian
(founder of Long Museum) built four museums in Shanghai, Chongqing,

and Wuhan, and each year the costs are not small. Suning Group has a
museum in Shanghai and another in Nanjing. All these museums, including
other non-government-operated museums, are extremely important to the
development of Chinese society....
We need to learn from the West about how they create supporting pol-
icies, including tax deductions and benefits, which should be given to these
nonprofit institutions. We also need the support from society, so that these
private institutions can have long-term stability....
Right now, Liu Yiqian spends a lot of cash on his two museums in
Shanghai each year. These institutions completely rely on the support of
the individuals and companies that support them. This is not fair and will
be difficult to sustain.
A tax-benefit system to support philanthropy, including operating private

museums or making donations of money or artworks, will take a long time to
be designed and effectively implemented in China because such an endeavor will
involve the efforts of multiple ministries. Therefore, without such a system in
place, many of the 1,860 private museums in China13 will not be sustainable over
the next decade. Their annual cost is too high, and few private businesses can
sustain such elevated spending over an extended period of time.
As observed by Zhu Junbo, the first General Manager of Duo Yun Xuan
Auction House:
The most critical thing is not whether these entrepreneurs can launch a
museum, but whether they can sustain it. I think in ten years a lot of the
private museums will be gone....
But they (these private museums) have made their historical accom-
plishment. You cannot expect them to last forever. After all, operating
these museums costs private money. For example, by establishing Long
Museum, Liu Yiqian and his wife have significantly contributed to the
private museum movement in China. Even if they decided to close the
museum today, they have attained their lifetime achievement. You cannot
be too critical of them or expect them to operate the museum for 100 years.
It was their own money and they did not enjoy any tax benefit from the
government. Such endeavors should be appreciated.
In September 2017, Song Art Museum, established by the co-founder of

Huayi Brothers movie production company and collector Wang Zhongjun,
opened in Beijing.14 The inaugural exhibition showed Wang’s personal art
collection, including Picasso’s portrait of Francoise Gilot created in 1948, Femme
au Chignon Dans un Fauteuil, which was once owned by the Goldwyn family15 in
the US, and Van Gogh’s Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies, painted in 1890.16
Wang acquired both paintings at Sotheby’s auctions: the Van Gogh painting was
bought in 2014 for USD 62 million and the Picasso painting in 2015 for USD
30 million. A few years later, Wang’s movie production company encountered
severe solvency problems: from 2017 to 2021 the company lost RMB 6.4 billion
(USD 1 billion)17 and in 2022 the company was listed by the local government as
“one of the business defaulters.”18 In March 2022, Song Art Museum announced
that the institution switched ownership. Ding Zehua, a 24-year-old collector,
whose father owns the Tangshan Delong Steel Company, had taken over Wang
Zhongjun as the new owner and director of the Museum.19 In an interview
with the local Chinese press, Ding Zehua admitted that he began learning about
collecting art when he was 15 years old and started collecting contemporary
art when he was 17 years old.20 At the time, his family started to change their
collecting focus from Chinese antiquities to Chinese contemporary art and thus
his interest in contemporary art was gradually developed. He hoped that in the
future, Song Art Museum would conduct more research and exhibitions based
on his own contemporary art collection.21
In June 2022, the Times Museum (based out of Guangzhou China) decided
to close its art center in Berlin, which was launched less than four years ago.22
In August 2022, the Times Museum announced that its Guangzhou headquar-
ters would be closed in October after nearly 19 years of operation.23 With the
country’s economic downturn and pandemic- related issues, the institution’s
financial difficulties worsened, causing the management team to close the
museum. Although the leadership team hoped to reopen some of the space to a
limited capacity in the second half of 2023, the long-term prospects for the insti-
tution remain uncertain.
What occurred with the Song Art Museum and the Times Museum were
not one-off incidents. With the economic rate of growth in the PRC signifi-
cantly declining in 2022 and the long duration of the zero-covid policy, which
caused months of lockdowns in metropolitan cities in China, including Shanghai
and Shenzhen, it is foreseeable that many private museums will be facing more
severe challenges. When private museums decide to close, the owners are likely
to liquidate their collections on the secondary art market to generate capital or
to pass on funds to their families’ next generation as part of their inheritance. If
the owners care more about their legacy as collectors or for political reasons, they
might decide to donate the collections to state museums.
Stronger collaboration among art, design, fashion, and

technology industries will take place. Experienced-based art
consumption will substantially increase.
In June 2017, the luxury fashion brand LVMH launched the Espace Louis Vuitton
in Beijing, “an exhibition place encouraging creation of new contemporary
artworks.” Located in the Central Business District of Beijing, the Espace Louis
Vuitton’s “800m 2 exhibition space is dedicated exclusively to contemporary art
exhibitions.”24 The inaugural exhibition showed a group of paintings by Gerhard
Richter in the collection of the Louis Vuitton Foundation.25 Since then, the
Espace Louis Vuitton in Beijing has held monographic exhibitions of Richard
Prince in 2018,26 Andreas Gursky in 2019,27 Alberto Giacometti in 202128 and
Cindy Sherman from 2021 to 2022.29
In the same year, in October 2017, the Prada Group opened Prada Rong Zhai
in Shanghai. It is located in an old residential house built in 1918, renovated by
the Prada Group, now “a space dedicated to art.”30 Different from the Espace
Louis Vuitton in Beijing, Prada Rong Zhai’s art programs have offered a com-
bination of solo exhibitions to Chinese artists, for example, Liu Ye in 2018 to
201931 and Li Qing in 2019 to 2020,32 and group shows of Western artists, for
instance, Roma: 1950–1965 in 2018 which included artworks by Mario Ballocco,
Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi and Ettore Colla,33 and What was I? in 2019,
which exhibited works by Jan Schoonhoven, Luis Tomasello, Grazia Varisco,
Nanda Vigo, Walter De Maria and Llyn Foulkes, among others.34
It has become clear that visual arts have become a favored tool for fashion
companies and luxury brands to elevate their brand recognition among the
Chinese HNWIs. In September 2021, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of
the founding of the brand, the apparel company Ports commissioned Chinese
contemporary artist Liang Yuanwei, who is represented by Beijing Commune
gallery, to create a series of paintings and installations. The installation consisted
of 60 metal panels, which were based on the color palette of Ports’ Fall & Winter
fashion series in 2021.35
Luxury brands have become the largest contributor to advertising revenue
for The Art Newspaper Chinese Edition, the leading publication of visual art in
the country.36 It is foreseeable that with China remaining an important growth
market for many international luxury brands, increasingly closer collaboration
among art, fashion and luxury goods will take place moving forward.37 This is
likely to be a driving force for substantial growth in the consumption of artist-
licensed luxury or design products in China. To purchase such products gener-
ally costs considerably less than collecting an artwork and does not require expert
connoisseurship. These products appeal to a broad demographic of consumers.
Such interdisciplinary cooperation will mostly be driven by the private sector
in China. In recent years, working with luxury goods or high-end fashion
brands on exhibitions and programs has been a common practice among private
museums.
Jenny Wang, Chairwoman of Fosun Foundation, said:
For example, our venue is new, and some luxury brands like our space.
They might ask, “Can we rent your space for a couple of months? We want
to have a jewelry show.” Such an exhibition to promote the luxury brand
might give you a very good rental return....
My current strategy is to have one such (luxury-brand) exhibition per
year, but no more. They must have a good brand with strong artistic value.
The brand has to have a legacy and a good story to tell....
(In 2018) we had a Cartier exhibition. It was not long, but it was very
attractive. The number of public visitors was large, because Cartier showed
the best jewelry from the company’s historic collection. From one angle,
the public can understand the legacy of the brand; from another, they can
also enjoy the aesthetics. Those are the issues that we consider.
Additionally, we can expect to see a deeper collaboration between art and tech-
nology. Many younger-generation artists have been creating new media artworks
or artworks produced using advanced computer technology, science technologies
and artificial intelligence. This trend of art production will shape a new approach
to art collecting. For this category, ownership of artworks, valuation and circula-
tion could be substantially different from owning regular artworks like paintings.
Zheng Hao, collector and founder of How Art Museum, observed:
I think that artificial intelligence and technology will also have an impact
on art in the future. I have talked to people about several examples and
said that perhaps in the future AI robots may replace people.... I think
many interesting things will happen and a new structure will be formed.
Perhaps the collectors and art museums will pay more attention to the rela-
tionship between art and technology, art and machinery, art and artificial
intelligence.
With the collaboration and integration of art, fashion, luxury brands and
technology, a broader audience will become regular “art- experience con-
sumers.” There has been a general global trend of consumers shifting more
toward experiences (than ownership) of art, which has yet to become adopted
fully in the art industry.38 Some experience-based exhibitions have been quite
successful, including the MoMA Rain Room. Shanghai-based private museum
the Yuz Museum, founded by collector Budi Tek, acquired one of the editions of
Rain Room and exhibited it in 2015, attracting over 200,000 visitors.39
When Pace Beijing held the teamLab exhibition in 2017, the show attracted
400,000 visitors and helped the gallery generate millions of dollars of revenue
from ticket sales rather than sales of artworks. The exhibition enabled Pace
Beijing to explore a new type of revenue model for its gallery business.
We can expect to see art experiences continue to increase, as they move
towards a more engaging and socially shareable model. More innovative art
experiences, which combine art, technology, fashion, design, and performing art
(including music, dance, cinema and theatre), are likely to become the impetus
for further development of the art ecology in China. This field is expected to
evolve with active international collaboration and attract new talent with multi-
disciplinary skill sets. In the next five to ten years the total consumption of
experienced-based art is likely to achieve substantial growth because of its strong
appeal to a broad public audience and more affordable prices.
As Jenny Wang, Chairwoman of Fosun Foundation, observed:
I think contemporary art may have different categories. The Chinese audi-
ence can now accept a medium that is easy to understand and easy to
express. It can be interactive with real feelings, and may be acceptable to
Chinese audiences. But others, such as some conceptual art, minimalist art,
I think they are difficult for the audience to understand.
The future for the NFT (non-fungible token) art market in

China will be shaped by the National Digital Culture Strategy
In March 2021, an NFT artwork by the digital artist Beeple was sold at Christie’s
New York for USD 69 million.40 Since then the concept of NFT has drawn a tre-
mendous amount of attention in China. In swift fashion auction houses, private
museums, galleries and online trading platforms began to follow suit to trade
NFT works. Many artists were also encouraged to launch NFT artworks.
In September 2021, artist Cao Fei created her first NFT work based on
the avatar in her 2007 film China Tracy. In the NFT work, “China Tracy was
resurrected from SL (Second Life) and has authored Einstein on the Beach—
Chasing the Moon.”41 In January 2022, artist Xu Bing launched his NFT work
based on his Book from the Ground series in 2007.42 These were merely two of
many examples of Chinese contemporary artists experimenting with NFT
work creation.
Local auction houses were able to rapidly catch up with Christie’s initiative.
Two months after Christie’s sale of Beeple’s work, China Guardian auctioned
an NFT artwork, Peony Pavilion by Chinese artist Song Ting, during its
Spring auctions in Beijing in May 2021. It was sold for RMB 667,00043 (USD
103,000). In June 2022 Poly Auction held the first online auction dedicated
to NFT artworks, called Metaverse: Digital Twin.44 Over a dozen works by
Chinese and international digital artists were offered45 and the sales achieved
RMB 512,300 (USD 79,000).46 It was clear that Poly’s NFT auction, which
took place after China Guardian’s NFT sale, already began to experience the
weakening demand of the NFT art market.
In addition to the overall market decline of the prices for NFT artworks
traded, in September 2021, the PRC’s Central Bank, The People’s Bank of
China, announced that it would ban all trading and mining activities in China
of cryptocurrencies.47 The new regulation brought immediate uncertainty to
the market of NFT artworks in China. In April 2022, the National Internet
Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association, and the Securities
Association of China jointly issued an initiative on preventing financial risks
related to NFT.48 One of the policies listed in the initiative was to prevent
any investment in NFT, directly or indirectly, or any financial support to any
NFT investment efforts. Subsequently, both China Guardian and Poly Auction
suspended sales of NFT artworks just before the Spring auction season in 2022.
The strict regulatory environment that the PRC government created has
had an immediate impact on the growth of the NFT market in the country.
In addition to the local auction house’s halting their sales of NFT artworks, in
August, one of the largest tech companies in the country, Tencent, terminated
NFT sales on its platform Huanhe, which, despite only being in operation for a
year, had become one of the leading NFT trading platforms in the PRC.49
In this restrictive supervisory environment, what will be the future of the NFT
art market in China? To answer this question, the best guide for understanding
government policy will be the “National Digital Culture Strategy” 国家数字
文化战略 issued by the State Council and the General Office of the Central
Committee of the CCP.50 Although the document did not directly address the
topic of NFT art and culture products and the market, the Strategy did empha-
size the goal that “by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) period,
the basic cultural digital infrastructure and service platform will be completed,
forming an online and off line integration and interaction, three-d imensional
coverage of the cultural service supply system.”51
The Central Government’s blueprint is in line with Xi Jinping Thought on
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era 习近平新时代中国特色
社会主义思想 and the CCP’s goal of building socialist cultural power 建设社会
主义文化强国 by 2035, both of which will be discussed at length in Part II.
In summary, the Chinese government does not intend to eliminate NFT arts
and culture products and the trade of these in the country. Rather, the regulator
has fully recognized the tremendous potential of the digital format of art creation
and its cultural and market value. With the issuance of a national strategy, the gov-
ernment envisions the centralized management of digital cultural assets through
the creation of a national cultural database. Once the digital infrastructure within
the country is in place, the regulator plans to establish a unified market where
all digital arts and cultural products, including NFTs, based on China’s own
blockchain, will be traded.
Meanwhile, the Strategy reinforces the issue of data security, namely “identi-
fying important cultural data catalogs, clarifying important cultural data security
management measures, and effectively strengthening cultural data security protection”
确定重要文化数据目录，明确重要文化数据处境安全管理举措，切实加强文
化数据安全保护.52 Therefore, once the national arts and cultural database and
unified trading market are created, how they will interact with the rest of the
world, at what capacity, with how much transparency, and in which format, is
yet to be seen. If successful, this would undoubtedly shape digital art creation,
collection and circulation in the future.
Notes
1 www.artnews.com/a rt-news/m arket/pace-g allery-closes-beiji ng-branch-12935/.
2 www.frie ze.com/g allery/james-cohan#:~:text=James%20Coh an%20Gallery%20o
perated%20an,in%20New%20York%20and%20Shanghai.
3 www.lisson g allery.com/news/a nnounc i ng- t he- open i ng- of-l is son- g allery- s - s hang
hai-exhibition-space.
4 www.lissong allery.com/exhibitions/love-is-a-metaphysical-g ravity.

5 www.lehman n maupin.com/news/a nnounci ng-lehma nn-m aupin-beiji ng.
6 www.prnewswi re.com/news-releases/openi ng-of-blanc-a rt-space---t he-f irst-a rt-
space-w ith-t ax-f ree-policy-i n-beiji ng-301411833.html.
7 www.lissong allery.com/exhibitions/a nish-k apoor-f 820c7a4- c61f- 456b- ac84- caf 7e
b5ff8d6.
8 www.lissong allery.com/news/a nish-k apoor- opens- show-acro ss-t wo-m ajor- s ites-
in-beiji ng-central-academy-of-f ine-a rts-i mperial-a ncestral-temple.
9 www.phill i ps.com/a rti c le/61710 2 25/ p hill i ps- p oly- c ollab o rat i on- h ong- kong-
auct ion.
10 www.sothebys.com/en/a rticles/sothebys- a nnounces- def i nit ive- a greement-to-be-
acquired-by-patr ick- d rahi.
11 https://m-news.art ron.net/news/20220528/n1903809.html.
12 Kejia Wu, TEFAF Art Market Report, https://2019.amr.tefaf.com/.
13 www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202202/eee1403826864db9b75db7e05c78b76d.shtml.
14 www.chinartlaw.com/i ndex.php?r=post%2Fv iew&id=289.
15 https://news.artnet.com/m arket/wang-zhong jun-goldw yn-picasso-295411.
16 www.hollywo odr e por t er.com/mov ies/movie- news/ huayi- brothe rs- chief-wang-
zhong jun-746585/.
17 https://f inance.sina.com.cn/chanji ng/g snews/2 022– 05– 0 6/doc-i mcwipii8 404985.
shtml.
18 www.163.com/dy/a rticle/H99NUA M7053469M5.html.
19 www.sohu.com/a/539997119_116237.
20 https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetai l_ forward_17539351.
21 https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetai l_ forward_17539351.
22 https://f reewechat.com/a/MjM5MjA z MzUyMA==/2649269152/1.
23 www.thea r tnew spap er.com/2 022/0 8/19/one- of- chi n as- olde st- priva te- a rt-muse
ums-to-close-a s-covid-lockdow ns-lead-to-econom ic-slump.
24 https:// u s.louis v uit t on.com/ e ng- u s/ m agaz i ne/ a r tic l es/ e spa c es- l ouis- v uit
ton#beiji ng.
25 www.visitbeiji ng.com.cn/a rticle/47QrlGNO7wy.
26 http://f ashion.sina.com.cn/s/2018– 05–11/1822/doc-i ham f ahw5304969.shtml.
27 www.andrea s gur s ky.com/e n/e xhib itio ns/s olo- e xhibitions/2 018/ l ouis-v uit t on-
beiji ng.
28 www.louisv uitton.cn/z hs-c n/m agazi ne/a rticles/a lber to-g iacomet ti-e space-louis-
vuitton-beiji ng.
29 www.louisv uit ton.cn/zhs-cn/m agazi ne/a rticles/espace-louis-v uit ton-beiji ng.
30 www.pra d agr oup.com/e n/p ersp e ctives/s tor ies/s ezione- proge t ti- s peci a li/prada-
rong-zhai.html.
31 www.prada.com/c n/z h/p rad a sphe re/s pec i al- p rojec ts/2 018/r ong- z hai- s tory t ell
ing.html.
32 www.prada.com/c n/z h/prad a sphe re/s pec i al-projec ts/2 019/r ong-z hai-r ear-w ind
ows.html.
33 www.prada.com/u s/en/prad a sphere/speci al-projec ts/2 018/rong-z hai-roma-1950–
1965.html.
34 www.prada.com/u s/e n/prad a sphe re/s peci al-projec ts/2 019/r ong-z hai-what-was-
i.html.
35 https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=171149754 4958769107&wfr=spider&for=pc.
36 The information was based on in-person conversation with the editorial team of the
publication.
37 www.ft.com/content/e62f3e12–23e5–11e9-b329-c7e6ceb5f fdf.
38 Euromonitor International, Megatrend Analysis: Putting the Consumer at the Heart
of Business, www.euromonitor.com/whitepaper/megatrend-a nalysis-consumer-
business.
39 www.tanchinese.com/news/39314/.
40 www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-n ft-sale-cost-everydays-
69-m illion.
41 https://agorad igit al.art/a rt ist-prof i le-cao-fei/.
42 https://coinyuppie.com/x u-bing-t he-metaver se-i s-t he-t est-g rou nd-for-t he-g ro
wth-of-d ishu-a nd-it-is-a n-excellent-soil-for-d ishu-to-evolve-a nd-m atu re/.
43 https://f inance.sina.cn/2021– 06– 07/deta il-i kqciyzi8265858.d.html.
44 https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210530A09RNV00.
45 https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210530A09RNV00.
46 www.tjhushe.com/i ndex.php?c=show&id=946.
47 http://f inance.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0924/c1004–32235807.html.
48 http://f inance.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0414/c1004–32399435.html.
49 www.reuters.com/t ech nology/t encent- stops- s ales-its-n ft-platform-hua n he-year-
after-launch-scrut i ny-mounts-2022– 08–16/.
50 http://w ww.gov.cn/zhengce/2022– 05/23/content_ 5691982.htm.
51 https://f inance.sina.com.cn/money/lczx/2022– 05–26/doc-i mizi rau4776231.shtml.
52 “National Digital Culture Strategy” 国家数字文化战略.
PART II
The State and Its Art System

4
THE PARADOX OF TWO PARALLEL
ART SYSTEMS
The convening of the 20th Party Congress is the top priority in the pol-
itical life of the Party and the PRC this year. To propagate and publicize
the 20th Party Congress is the main focus of the work of the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism in 2022. The Ministry’s first priority is to promote,
study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics for a New Era.
Xi Jinping Thought is the contemporary Chinese Marxism, the 21st
century Marxism, and the essence of the times of Chinese culture and
Chinese spirit. We will guide our party members, cadres and the general
public to unswervingly hold high the ideological and spiritual banner of
Xi Jinping Thought, deeply understand its core essence and feel the power
of its spiritual and practical strength. They are to become firm believers,
active communicators, and loyal practitioners of Xi Jinping Thought.
—Hu Heping, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the PRC,
on the tasks of the Ministry in 20221
Prelude: October 13, 2021. Hong Kong and Beijing. The

Juxtaposition of Two Events
Wednesday, October 13, 2021, marked two important juxtaposing events in
China’s art world.
In Beijing, almost two years had passed since the outbreak of COVID-19,
and the largest contemporary art fair in the city, Beijing Contemporary Art
Expo (BCAE), had returned in full swing. Held at the National Agricultural
Exhibition Center, a Soviet-Union-style building complex completed in the late
1950s, the five-d ay art fair attracted over 60 Chinese and international galleries as
participants. The opening day was filled with cocktail parties sponsored by luxury
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-6
78 The State and Its Art System
brands, thousands of VIP visitors, and frantic art-collecting activities: million-

dollar sales of Yayoi Kusama paintings and young, emerging Chinese artists (born
in the 1990s) comfortably selling works for tens of thousands of dollars. Galleries,
collectors, and the local press were fully immersed in the contemporary art car-
nival and enthusiastic to embrace the revival of the primary art market after a
two-year period of dormancy.
In Hong Kong, the arrival of October 13 delivered a more somber mood to
the city. A deadline of 5:00 p.m. was set by the University of Hong Kong (HKU)
to remove the sculpture The Pillar of Shame, which commemorates the people
who suffered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. Much to the shock of the
Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt who created the work in 1996 and helped install it
on HKU’s campus in 1997, HKU’s lawyer stated in a letter that if the work does
not disappear by the October 13 deadline, then “the Sculpture will be deemed
abandoned,” and “the University will deal with the Sculpture at such time and
in such manner as it thinks fit without further notice.”2
According to the description by Dennis WH Kwok, a Senior Fellow at
Harvard Kennedy School and former Lawmaker of Hong Kong (2012–2 020),
who used to study law at HKU in the late 1990s, the eight-meter-t all bronze
sculpture “with its many twisted faces and skulls crushed together, it was
not something that was meant to be easy to look at or admire. Like the truth
about the events of June 4, 1989, it is designed to make the viewer uncom-
fortable, and hence unable to forget this part of history.”3 At the base of the
sculpture, a line was engraved by Galschiøt: “The old cannot kill the young
forever.”
In an op-ed written for ARTnews two months later, Kwok stated:
The Pillar of Shame is a work of art that pushed all of us to think beyond
ourselves, and to truly appreciate the freedom that was unique to us Hong
Kongers, and denied to the rest of China.... The lesson of its removal should
serve a warning to the rest of the international community: authoritarian
governments will always try to control all aspects of life—including art.4
Since the Chinese government’s implementation of the National Security

Law (NSL)5 in Hong Kong in July 2020, the authorities in Hong Kong have
initiated a series of purging efforts to curtail local resident’s attempts to com-
memorate Tiananmen Square. Before the NSL was imposed, Hong Kong and
Macao had been the only cities in China where annual commemorative activities
of Tiananmen Square were allowed.
On June 4, 2021, the annual vigil held in Victoria Park with a decades’ long
tradition, was not permitted to be held. Then, Hong Kong police raided the June
4th Museum and arrested “four members of the civil society group that ran it.”6
HKU’s demand to eradicate the sculpture, The Pillar of Shame, came as another
effort to purge the memorial of the victims of Tiananmen and force a collective
amnesia of the traumatic memory.
The Paradox of Two Parallel Art Systems 79
To Galschiøt, the work is “a litmus test of the authorities’ vow to respect

human rights and free speech in Hong Kong.” 7 Deeply angered and disturbed by
HKU’s request, he said: “(The Chinese Communist Party has) already erased the
memory of what happened at Tiananmen inside of China, and now they will do
the same in Hong Kong.”8
A few days after the deadline imposed by HKU to remove the sculpture,
the Chicago- founded law firm Mayer Brown, with a significant history of
representing HKU on important matters, including this matter, decided to
terminate its representation of HKU9 due to increasing international criti-
cism.10 Their corporate decision immediately triggered an uproar among the
local politicians in Hong Kong. Leung Chun-y ing, former Chief Executive of
Hong Kong (2012–2017) and Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of
the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), called for a
China-w ide boycott of Mayer Brown as an official act of retaliation:
From here on, no client in Hong Kong or Mainland China, particularly

those with Chinese government connections, will find Mayer Brown
dependable.... Yes I am calling for a China-w ide boycott of Mayer Brown.
The firm owes Hong Kong a full account of its decision to cease to act for
Hong Kong University, and of the foreign interventions leading to that
decision.11
The events surrounding the sculpture The Pillar of Shame in Hong Kong, the
resignation of Mayer Brown from its representation of HKU, and the request
by Leung Chun-y ing to boycott the law firm, though broadly reported by the
international press12 and creating substantial anxiety in Hong Kong, did not
receive a single mention in the mainland Chinese media. The topic of the events
surrounding Tiananmen Square has long been a strictly forbidden subject for
the mainland Chinese press and domestic journalists and editors have developed
a strong sense of self-censorship. Anything slightly associated with the topic of
the events of Tiananmen will be automatically ignored and filtered by the local
journalists and editors.
On October 13, 2021, while galleries, collectors and media in Beijing were
rejoicing in the return of the BCAE and cheering for the revival of the contem-
porary art market in mainland China, they were at the same time turning a blind
eye to what was taking place in Hong Kong. It was ironic that The Pillar of Shame,
which was subsequently removed by the authorities in the dead of night,13 was in
commemoration of the people who suffered in Beijing in their democratic pro-
test 32 years ago.
Intentional obliviousness to certain events and topics while boastfully cele-
brating the growth of the market is the typical dichotomy facing the contem-
porary art world in China today. The general belief is that as long as sensitive
subject matters are not broached, the Chinese art market will be allowed to
prosper. Break this mantra at your peril.
The two concurrent events in the major art hubs in China, one a celebration
and the other a forceful action by the authorities, with each ignoring the exist-
ence of the other, ref lect a standard pattern in the Chinese art market nowadays.
Thought-provoking, confrontational art creativity will be shown zero tolerance
by the Chinese Communist Party. Ideological censorship and control are at levels
not seen since the end of the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, as long as the
constituencies: artists, galleries, art fair organizers, auction houses, museums and
media, operate within the censorship framework and avoid crossing the “red
line,” it is believed that the state will support and promote the industry. Despite
the state’s increasingly stringent censorship, there is a clear agenda of establishing
China as a global leader in arts and culture by 2035 and the state is willing to
invest money in the sector to try to make this a reality.
The Two Parallel Art Systems

Today, China is the only major art market in the world where an immense state-
endorsed-and-censored art system and a significant market-oriented art system
co-exist in parallel. While the state art system has a mission to propagate the
ideology of the CCP, and Xi Jinping Thought14 in particular, constituencies in
the market-oriented art system have a large degree of autonomy to decide the
artworks they would like to display or circulate. This autonomy is based on one
condition: the artworks cannot violate the criteria of censorship defined by the
Ministry of Propaganda and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Artworks do
not necessarily have to act as propaganda for the CCP, but they certainly cannot
touch on the strictly prohibited subject matter such as the events in Tiananmen
Square or the protests in Hong Kong. Nor can they criticize the CCP or challenge
the narrative of the official rhetoric of the CCP’s history.
Back in 2001 when I was overseeing one of the first contemporary art centers
in Beijing, East Modern Art Center (EMAC),15 the quasi-private institution had
the full autonomy to decide what kind of art programs to put on. There was no
need for the content to be reviewed by the local bureau of culture in advance.
In contrast, nowadays organizers of art exhibitions in China have to submit a
written application that includes the description and images of the artworks for
review by the local bureau of culture at least three months before the exhibition
is scheduled to open.16 In addition, another round of reviews will be conducted
after the artworks approved by the first-round review are mounted in the exhib-
ition space but before the show opens. Officials from the bureau of culture will
inspect the artworks on-site and in person. If they deem that certain works are
culturally inappropriate in the new round of review, these pieces will have to
be withdrawn. Otherwise, the exhibition will not receive the final permission
necessary for public viewing.
Furthermore, for any artworks that are to travel from the PRC to overseas,
either for a nonprofit museum show or a commercial gallery exhibition,17 they
need to be reviewed and approved by the local bureaus of culture before they
can leave the country.18 The rationale for censorship of the outbound f low of
artworks is to ensure that these artworks, once displayed or circulated inter-
nationally, will bolster a positive image of the PRC. The policy is to strictly
follow General Secretary Xi Jinping’s ideological guideline:
(We must) tell the world positive Chinese stories, spread Chinese voices,
enhance China’s cultural soft power and the inf luence of Chinese culture
in the world.
向世界讲好中国故事; 传播好中国声音... 国家文化软实力、中华文化影响
力明显提升.19
Regulations for the Administration of Business Operations of Artworks issued by

the Ministry of Culture in 2016 listed nearly a dozen criteria on artworks with
certain content forbidden to be displayed and circulated domestically and inter-
nationally.20 Chapter 6 will discuss these criteria in more detail. These criteria
provide an overarching ideological guideline for the local bureaus of culture
during their review process. As part of the procedure, before galleries, auction
houses, private museums and art fair organizers can display artworks in public,
they are required to submit to the local culture bureau an application with
images of the artworks shown and listed. Once they receive the application,
it is up to the staff at the bureau to make a judgement call on whether any art-
work on the list violates the censorship criteria. The criteria are more of a con-
cept than a strict set of written rules that can generate uniform results. It is not
uncommon for certain artworks that passed the censorship review for an exhib-
ition a few years prior, to be perceived as inappropriate for a different exhib-
ition years later. Artworks approved for public display by the bureau of culture
in one municipal city can be deemed inappropriate for public viewing by the
bureau of culture of another city. The level of strictness of censorship over the
years is often perceived by artists as an indicator of the degree of severeness of
the Party’s ideological control. For instance, in 2021 when the CCP celebrated
the 100th anniversary of its founding, the Shenzhen Biennial held by OCAT, a
private museum located in the city of Shenzhen, went through six months and
three rounds of censorship reviews by the local bureau of culture. According to
an artist who participated in the Biennial, over 60% of the artworks initially to
be included in the Biennial were removed from the final list of artworks.21 The
Shenzhen Biennial in 2021 was a privately funded art exhibition that experienced
one of the strictest censorship reviews over the past decade. The timing of pol-
itically important dates, public events, and a host of other factors can heavily
inf luence the amount and types of censorship that will be applied.
Once the officials at the local bureau of culture decide that a painting or a
sculpture’s subject matter conf licts with the Party’s ideological guidelines, then
it will be pulled out of a domestic exhibition or prevented from traveling over-
seas. If the officials feel that a certain portion of a video work violates the ideo-
logical guidelines, then the bureau will require the artist to remove or revise the
offending portion. If an artist refuses to abide by the request, the artwork will
not be shown at all. It is a risk that many artists are reluctant to take, especially
since the competition for the opportunity to have their work exhibited can be
incredibly fierce at reputable art institutions in China.
Under this system of constraints, artists, galleries, art fair organizers and pri-
vate museums, even when they are not part of the state system, nor receive
direct patronage from state institutions, still have to abide by the censorship
rules defined by the state—the Ministry of Propaganda, the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism,22 the local bureaus of culture, as well as other state organizations.
Such bureaucratic rigidity, oppressive and frustrating as they appear, is the social
and political environment that Chinese contemporary artists, galleries, private
museums, art fair organizers and auction houses live and breathe in.
It goes without saying that the phenomenon is more than often difficult to
be fully grasped by the Western media and art critics. As Jed Perl described in
his book, Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, “All sorts of novelists,
composers, choreographers, poets, and painters find themselves engaged in the
challenges of authority and freedom that are the lifeblood of the arts.” And James
Baldwin wrote in his essay in 1962, The Creative Process:
I am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist’s responsibility to

his society. The peculiar nature of this responsibility is that he must never
cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own…the war of an artist
with his society is a lover’s war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do,
which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make
freedom real.
An artist who “challenges authority” engages in “war” with society, as

described by Perl as the “lifeblood of the arts” or by Baldwin as the “artist’s
responsibility,” though a prevailing belief commonly practiced in the Western
art world, is less pronounced in China. It is because no individual or institu-
tion can escape the ubiquitous censorship imposed by the state. If you want to
survive you have to abide by the rules, the odds of survival by opposing the
system are extremely low.23 As a result, artists looking for the most degrees of
freedom will generally decide to not become part of the state system, and not
receive state patronage to earn a living. More importantly, their decision not to
depict propagandist, patriotic themes advocated by the CCP, for some, is their
method of challenging the system.
The market-oriented system enables the survival of living artists outside of
the state system. This system is enabled by galleries, private museums, collectors,
corporate sponsors and media, who exhibit, collect and write about the artworks,
and have created the foundation of a successful art ecosystem in China. The
market-oriented system is still subject to the state’s censorship, but it operates
independently from the state-endorsed art system. For example, in December
2021, when the Chinese contemporary art magazine Hi Art, surveyed over
1,300 domestic art exhibitions held that year and ranked the top 10 best shows,
none of the exhibitions organized by the state emphasizing the glory of the
Party and Chinese Nation were included in the survey. Nor were any of the
exhibitions organized by the state museums in celebration of the 100th anniver-
sary of the CCP to receive any mention by The Art Newspaper Chinese Edition in
2021. Both Hi Art and The Art Newspaper Chinese Edition are owned by Chinese
private entrepreneurs. In a post on WeChat, a Chinese social media applica-
tion, in September 2021, artist Liang Yuanwei, represented by the local gallery
Beijing Commune located at 798 Art Zone in Beijing and one of the com-
mercially successful Chinese artists born in the 1970s, wrote about a group of
her artworks, including paintings and installations commissioned by the luxury
women’s apparel company Ports to celebrate their 60th anniversary.24 She said
that without the patronage of corporate sponsors and private collectors, it would
be extremely difficult for her, an artist independent from the state system, to
make a living. Liang’s statement ref lects a common phenomenon that many con-
temporary artists are facing in China.
The relationship between Chinese contemporary artists independent from the
state system and their individual or corporate patrons has often been interpreted
negatively by many Western scholars. As Pauline Yao, a former art critic in
Beijing and now the lead curator of the M+Museum in Hong Kong, wrote
in 2009:
Contemporary art continues to be treated explicitly as a form of entertain-

ment, a photo backdrop, or a moneymaking scheme for the burgeoning
middle and upper classes. Media attention, private sponsorship, corporate
ventures, and personal museums do little to counteract a growing percep-
tion that equates contemporary art with investment and market value.25
In fact, what stimulates a collector to acquire an artist’s work has always been
driven by a complex set of motives. For many top-tier Chinese collectors, the
emotional factors that inf luence their collecting decisions cannot be simply
registered as “a form of entertainment, a photo backdrop, or a moneymaking
scheme for the burgeoning middle and upper classes.” For instance, collector
Liu Gang bought the painting Butterfly by artist Zhao Bandi, which was painted
in 1990 and depicted a young woman in a long skirt standing in front of the
Mao portrait at Tiananmen Square and a shadow- l ike working- class man
holding an umbrella behind her.26 It conveyed an implicit reference to the events
surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, a taboo subject matter in the
PRC. Being deeply sympathetic to the victims of that event, Liu Gang finds that
the painting is profoundly symbolic. Although he has been approached by many
auction houses, offering multiples of what he paid for the painting to convince
him to consign the work, he has always refused their requests. For him, the work
is the backbone of his private collection, and he is not willing to part with it.
From 2020 to 2022, during the prolonged pandemic, he commissioned a number
of Chinese contemporary artists and asked each of them to create an ink painting
related to the subject of COVID-19. Then he mounted all the paintings to a 40+
meter-long handscroll, as his personal way to genuinely commemorate the event.
This endeavor was not a speculative act for monetary gain. Rather, by working
with the living artists whom he appreciated, he was able to create a work that
ref lects the turbulent period.
Upon revisiting the conversations and surveys I conducted with the top
collectors27 in the PRC, which I conducted for my TEFAF report,28 I believe that
Dave Hickey’s observation on art collecting in his The Invisible Dragon offers a more
insightful summary of why these collectors collect, compared with Yao’s conclusion:
The mystery of the art market is that some people would rather possess an
object of marginal utility than the ultra-usable money they exchange for it.
This is the mystery of all markets in which taste is transformed into appe-
tite by a nonpecuniary cloud of discourse that surrounds the negotiation....
When exchange value segues into social value, commercial haggling segues
into ethical speculation. Any intrinsic qualities the object might possess are
quickly subordinated to the object’s personal and cultural meaning for the
human beings who are bargaining over it.
Indeed, as Dave Hickey once wrote about the behavior of art collecting in
Air Guitar:
Because it is a matter of heart and not of policy, a matter of live commitment

and not of bureaucratic accreditation. Money is the emblem of the risks
you’re willing to take to have some say in the way things look.... This is or
should be an incentive to participate, to take extravagant chances, to exe-
cute daring acts of faith on behalf of your beliefs.
Déjà Vu, the 19th-Century French Art Market?

As China’s cultural construction has made historic achievements and under-
gone historic changes, more and more Chinese people have come out of the
fog of a Western-centric world. They are now deeply rooted in the cultural
confidence of the 5,000-years of Chinese civilization. As the essence of
Chinese culture and Chinese spirit, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has represented Chinese traditional
culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture. It is precisely
because of the guidance of this scientific thought that the entire Party and
the people of all ethnic groups in China can form a broad consensus on
values and firm cultural confidence in the middle of the turbulent cultural
ideological clash between interest groups. This cultural confidence is deeply
rooted in the continuous Chinese civilization and provides a strong spiritual
force for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
随着我国文化建设取得历史性成就、发生历史性变革，越来越多的国人从
西方中心主义的迷雾中走出来，将文化自信深深扎根于5000多年生生不
息的中华文明中。习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想作为中华文化和中
国精神的时代精华，贯通了中华优秀传统文化、革命文化和社会主义先进
文化。正是因为有这一科学思想引领，全党全国各族人民才能在文化思潮
激荡与利益多元化面前形成广泛的价值共识、坚定的文化自信。这种文化
自信深深扎根于连绵不断的中华文明之中，为实现中华民族伟大复兴提供
了强大精神力量。
—People’s Daily, Op-ed: “The Cultural Confidence of the
Whole Party and the People of all Ethnic Groups has been
Significantly Enhanced,” July 8, 202229
When closely examining the two concurrent art systems in the PRC, one could
draw an analogy between them with the phenomenon of the French art world in
the 19th century: while the French Academy and the Salon “distance the produ-
cers of art from commerce by offering state patronage and official commissions”
and “enforce the classical aesthetic, defend history painting, and resist new forms
of aesthetic expression,” a group of modern and impressionist painters, who had
little success of winning “regular places, much less sustained acclaim, for their
canvases at the Salon led them to seek alternate means to sell their canvases and
carve out careers.”30
The distinctive feature of the contemporary art world in China is that for
many artists who have gone through the dogmatic training at the top art acad-
emies funded by the state,31 they have made the proactive decision of not having
their creative production become part of the state patronage system. Often, they
will refuse to visit the patriotic-themed exhibitions at the state museums, where
artworks commissioned by the CCP are on display, as a gesture of retaining their
independent creative thinking.32 It is an understated manifesto of demonstrating
their artistic autonomy by distancing themselves from the state system.
At the same time, the market-oriented art system has evolved into such a
considerable scale that if an artist gains strong gallery representation or suffi-
cient private collector support, the market for their works would be substantial
enough to sustain their livelihood. In a way, the creative independence of these
artists has made their artworks more appealing to Western galleries, collectors,
museums and auction houses because Western curators, art critics and collectors
appreciate the fact that these artists’ creative production has little ideological con-
trol from the CCP and bears its own merit of artistic development. For instance,
none of the Chinese contemporary artists selected by the four largest Western
blue-chip galleries33 are fully committed to the state art system. The Western
galleries’ selection not only ref lects their aesthetic judgement, but also indicates
their understanding of the preferences of collectors and private museums.
The rapid growth of the Chinese art market over the past few decades has
helped government decision-m akers realize the tremendous economic value of
the visual art sector. Consequently, national strategic planners in the PRC are
determined to expand the arts and culture industry into a pillar of the country’s
GDP growth model. This top-down policy, operated within a rigid ideological
framework, has both offered opportunities and imposed challenges for constitu-
encies in China’s art market today.
A Complex Situation and a Sophisticated Watchdog

(We ought to) continue to promote the integration of the basic principles
of Marxism with China’s specific reality and the excellence of traditional
Chinese culture, so that Marxism exhibits more Chinese characteristics,
Chinese style, and Chinese presence, and we continue writing a new
chapter in the modernization of Marxism in China.
继续推进马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统
文化相结合，使马克思主义呈现出更多中国特色、中国风格、中国气派，续
写马克思主义中国化时代化新篇章.
—Xi Jinping, “More Effectively Grasp and Use the Historical Experience of
the Party’s Century-old Struggle” 更好把握和运用党的百年奋斗历史经验,
Qiushi Magazine, June 202234
Different from the gradual downfall of the French Salon system at the end of
the 19th century, a result of the French state’s withdrawal of financial support
and the split with the artistic association in charge of it,35 the state-endorsed art
system in China has been actively expanding nationwide over the past decade. It
will continue to grow under the PRC’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) and the
Party’s objective of turning China into an arts and culture powerhouse by 2035.
As a result, the two parallel art systems will remain in co-existence for the fore-
seeable future. The contradicting trajectories of development, with the market-
oriented art system, and artists in particular, yearning for more breathing space
and creative independence, and the state-endorsed art system strengthening its
ideological control and censorship grip, will fundamentally shape the landscape
of China’s art market and its relationship with the Western art world in the
coming decade.
This paradox by no means portrays a binary picture. The two systems’
contradicting trajectories are not necessarily diametrically opposed to each other.
They are constantly observing, learning from and shaping each other. They
have done so in the past and will continue to remain in a complex, intertwined
state moving forward. For instance, typically Western observers see the newly
founded contemporary private museums in the PRC as independent from
the state system in terms of the curatorial programs. In fact, it has become a
common phenomenon for a contemporary private museum to invite scholars
from the state-run academies, who are government employees, to curate their
most important exhibitions. TAG Art Museum in Qingdao, launched in August
2021, held its inaugural exhibition, Beyond, from August 2021 to January 2022,
which was curated by Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts
(CAFA) and Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association (CAA). The group
show exhibited works by a number of internationally acclaimed artists including
David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Luc Tuymans, Carsten Holler, Bill Vila, Alex
Katz, Xu Bing, Yin Xiuzhen and Song Dong.36 The Jinji Lake Art Museum in
Suzhou has invited Wu Hongliang, President of Beijing Fine Art Academy and
Deputy Chairman of CAA, to curate its special exhibitions several times over
the years. The most recent exhibition curated by Wu Hongliang, From Treatise
on Superfluous Things, was held from September to November 2020. It included
installations and videos from celebrated Chinese contemporary artists who are
not part of the state system, including Yin Xiuzhen, Liu Jianhua, Hao Liang, and
He Xiangyu.37
One can see that the mutual benefits of such endeavors are apparent: the
scholars in the state system are offered the opportunity to collaborate with a
wide array of artists across a broad spectrum of genres38 and are paid by private
museums for these extracurricular projects. Meanwhile, by associating with the
reputable names of the scholars in the state system, the private museums face
less scrutiny when the applications for the exhibitions are subject to censorship
reviews by local bureaus of culture.
For the scholars in the state system, part of their responsibilities at govern-
ment institutions includes hosting internal meetings and study sessions that con-
stantly stress patriot rhetoric. In contrast to their state system obligations, when
they take on curatorial projects at private museums, they almost never promote
a Party-centric, nationalistic agenda in the exhibitions. They are clearly and
consciously trying to convey distinctive messages to different audiences, in a
way they are wearing different hats. Scholars in the state system understand that
when they work inside the state system, their eloquence in praising the Party
and Xi Jinping Thought is key to their success. But when they are curating and
operating in private museums those rules do not apply when the aim is to attract
mass audiences or accolades from other professionals in the art world. Their para-
doxical behaviors often make it hard for Western peers to judge these scholars’
ideological frameworks and academic credentials. However, such behavior is
commonly accepted and practiced in the PRC. Furthermore, one cannot simply
conclude that since the scholars in the state system actively engage in propa-
gandistic activities inside the system, they therefore lack the knowledge and the
judgement of selecting independent artists acclaimed by the Western curatorial
standards for an exhibition at a private museum. The inaugural show of TAG Art
Museum is one of many examples in the PRC that clearly demonstrate that the
differences between the systems are not clearly black and white.
Ultimately, understanding how the two systems evolve, expand, solidify their
own identities and interact with one another is the key to understanding the
future of the Chinese art market. In a way, it is fair to say that the increas-
ingly stringent ideological control and the censorship environment imposed by
the CCP have stimulated many living artists to intensify their exploration of
alternative ways of individual expression. This environment has also unleashed

a creative energy distinctly different from what we experience in the Western
contemporary art world.
At the same time, there have been an increasing number of cases of Chinese
contemporary artists who have gained international recognition through Western
gallery representation or museum shows, who are proactively taking on state-
endorsed art projects or administrative roles at state- run art institutions. For
instance, artist Qiu Zhijie, who is represented by Galleria Continua and whose
artworks have been broadly exhibited at Western institutions (Guggenheim,Venice
Biennale, Sao Paulo Art Biennial, among others), was appointed Dean of the School
of Experimental Art of CAFA in 201639 and has since taken on numerous state-
supported art projects in this new role. In August 2022, he was appointed by the
Ministry of Education as the Deputy President of CAFA.40 Artist Liu Xiaodong,
a professor at CAFA and one of the four Chinese artists out of nearly 70 artists
represented by Lisson Gallery (the others being Liu Xiaodong’s wife, painter
Yu Hong, Ai Weiwei, and Li Ran), became a member of The Twelfth National
Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
in 2013. Since then, he has been attending the annual concurrent National People’s
Congress (NPC) and CPPCC, the two most prestigious annual meetings hosted
by the CCP that take place at the Great Hall of the People every March. In this
position, he offers his recommendations for the development of arts and culture in
China. When asked by the magazine Art China in 2013 about his participation in
CPPCC, he said, “I think participation in politics is an opportunity for (Chinese)
contemporary artists.”41
Although both Liu Xiaodong and Ai Weiwei are represented by Lisson
Gallery, their political positions toward the PRC government could not be more
dissimilar. While Ai Weiwei constantly challenges the system of governance of
the CCP and was in detention in China for over 81 days in 2011 due to his pol-
itical activism (now in exile outside of China), Liu Xiaodong has been actively
participating in the Party’s annual political meetings for almost a decade. On
March 14, 2022, Liu Xiaodong spoke at the Special Study Session of CAFA’s
CCP Committee Theory Study Center in Beijing 党委理论学习中心组专题学
习会42 about the latest developments and messages that should be taken away
from the NPC and CPPCC meetings. He said that the key word of the gov-
ernment work report of CPPCC that year was “Unity” 团结 and the leadership
of CPPCC expected that the public in China will “welcome the CCP’s 20th
National Congress (in October) with a unified attitude and harmonious social
stability” 全国上下也将以团结的姿态，以和谐的社会稳定，迎接党的二十大胜
利召开. While Liu Xiaodong attended the CPPCC and subsequently shared
his advocacy for the CCP’s 20th Congress with CAFA’s Party committee in
Beijing, he had a monographic exhibition taking place at Faurschou Foundation
in New York,43 Uummannaq, which displayed his expedition to Uummannaq in
Greenland in 2017. Faurschou Foundation is headquartered in Copenhagen and
has permanent exhibition spaces in New York and Beijing. Unsurprisingly, on
the Foundation’s website, its description44 of Liu Xiaodong and the exhibition
did not include any information on the artist’s involvement in the CPPCC or
CAFA’s Party committee.
This phenomenon of more internationally renowned Chinese artists taking on
roles or projects endorsed by the state ref lects the complex interaction between the
two systems. On the one hand, it could be the result of the financial incentives, or
an elevation of status offered by the state. On the other hand, the artists themselves
might have the aspiration of making changes within the system through position
and inf luence. The administrative roles appointed by the state, which often come
with strong government support, include staff, funding and publicity, which allows
artists to realize ambitious art projects that could be difficult to achieve independ-
ently domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, the state has the intention of
evolving its arts and culture system to incorporate more international inf luencers,
in order to achieve its new strategic centennial goal. For the artists who proactively
integrate their career development into the state system, no matter how thought-
provoking their creative practices had been when they first gained Western recog-
nition45 outside of the state system, at the new stage of their career, they will have
to impose a certain degree of self-censorship of not challenging the state. This is
the consequence of their career choice, and they are fully aware of it. Inevitably,
for the artists previously mentioned, their recent art production, since they took on
state-underwriting roles and projects, has lost the critical and provocative edge that
previously permeated the early stages of their artistic career.
A similar situation has occurred in the field of Chinese contemporary criti-
cism. A number of high-profile art critics, who are often labeled as independent,
thought-provoking intellectuals, have recently been chosen to become faculty
members of leading state universities as their main profession (in addition to
their writing practice). In the PRC, universities are overseen by the Ministry of
Education, which imposes some of the most stringent ideological controls of all
the ministries. The Party’s Central Committee regularly conducts inspections of
the Ministry of Education and the universities to ensure that they are dedicated
to constant study sessions of the theories of Marxism, Xi Jinping Thought, and
are committed to implementing the Party’s instructions on education.46 Such
inspections, being a regular practice of the CCP, have been increasing since 2012
when Xi Jinping was elected the General Secretary and are emphasized as an
important measure of governing the Party and the country.47 The purpose of the
effort is to strengthen political supervision of the “Two Safeguards” 两个维护:48
(We must) resolutely safeguard General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position

on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and resolutely
safeguard the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized,
unified leadership.
坚决维护习近平总书记党中央的核心、全党的核心地位，坚决维护党中央
权威和集中统一领导.49
As Joseph Fewsmith pointed out in Rethinking Chinese Politics:
These efforts to tighten control over Party and state cadres have been
accompanied by continued efforts to strengthen surveillance over the
Chinese population.... Xi’s message has been both populist and nation-
alist. After all, he started his tenure by appealing to Chinese pride: “Our
people are a great people,” and he has returned repeatedly to nationalist
themes during his years in office.... Xi Jinping has gone far beyond his
predecessors, and the contrast between his policies and those of Deng
Xiaoping is striking.... Xi has declared that the party leads in everything.50
At Chinese universities, it is mandatory for the faculty to participate in strict

training sessions on Marxism theories, the CCP’s history and Xi Jinping Thought.
In fact, the Ministry of Education has required that the top universities in China
establish Marxism Institutes to conduct such training for its faculty.51 The fac-
ulty are also required to declare their loyalty to the Party and commitment to
following Xi Jinping Thought.
The art critic Zhou Wanjing, who was once a visiting scholar at Brown
University and was celebrated for her critical art reviews and incisive comments
on the Chinese contemporary art world, joined Beijing International Studies
University 北京第二外国语学院 in 2021 as a faculty member of the Japanese
Language Department. Before being employed by the University, she liked to
call herself a “writer who travels the world.”52 Zhou was chosen by the university
to participate in the “Always follow the Party and strive for a new journey” 永远
跟党走，奋斗新征程 training program on history of the CCP held in Northwest
China in July 2021.53 According to the internal news released by the univer-
sity at the end of the program, Zhou stated that the training “helped her fully
realize the meaning of learning the Party history and her historical mission.”54
In November 2021, the University’s CCP-led Propaganda Department published
a special feature on Zhou,55 who reinforced that the Party history training over
the summer benefited her tremendously: through the program, she learned how
to be a teacher and felt unprecedently moved by what she witnessed during the
training trip. In May 2022, Zhou was selected as one of the 55 “Young Fine Art
Criticism Talents” in the PRC who will be provided with training on art criti-
cism funded by the China National Arts Fund (CNAF).56 The training program
was conducted by senior faculty at CAFA in Beijing. At the opening ceremony
of the program, Lei Xining, Director of CNAF, and Fan Di’an, President of
CAFA and Chairman of CAA, both emphasized that the program was a crucial
endeavor to implement “the spirit of the Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s
Thought,” in particular his speeches on arts and culture.57 In fact, the first class
of the program was dedicated to studying Chairman Mao’s speech at Yan’an Arts
and Culture Forum in 1942 and Xi’s speeches on arts and culture since 2012.58
The example of Zhou, among other similar stories, perfectly depicts the
dialectical dilemma that many art critics in China face today. It is extremely
challenging to make a living as an art critic without a permanent position

associated with an institution, even for Zhou, who has published numerous novels
of substantial popularity, won several literature awards, written art columns for
domestic magazines and curated many art exhibitions. In an environment where
few independent grant-m aking art institutions exist and where private museums
are reluctant to pay a decent salary for curators, it is not unusual for many of the
intellectuals to be absorbed into the state system.
Although an art critic’s employment by the state does not necessarily translate
into this type of behavior of constantly praising the Party or opportunities to
regulate the arts, it is unlikely for them to interrogate the system, in particular
its ideological censorship. For example, an acclaimed independent art critic and
curator Lu Mingjun, who is now a research fellow at the Philosophy Department
of Fudan University in Shanghai, commented in an interview with the daily
newspaper The Beijing News in March 2020 that “(curating) high-tech (new
media) art exhibitions in China is relatively safe because they do not face the risk
of being censored.”59 Such a statement, contrary to the reality of the censorship
environment, unavoidably jeopardizes Lu’s credibility as an independent critic
and curator. The Beijing-based artist Jiang Zhi has publicly admitted on Chinese
social media that his multi-screen video installation created in 2009, Trembling
颤抖, which shows a standing nude person trembling on each screen panel, has
been prevented from being shown at any exhibition in the PRC since 2014 due
to the censorship by the local bureaus of culture.60 In the same interview with
The Beijing News, Lu also acknowledged that:
Because in China most (private) museums and art institutions do not have
a curatorial department, many independent curators are facing the pressure
of making a living. Often after a while, they would have to change their
profession to do something else (in order to survive).61
One cannot help but wonder, whether his comment on the state’s censorship of
new media exhibitions was intended to maintain his employability as a curator
and art critic.
By constantly evolving, the state system has become more sophisticated. The
government has realized that for a well-educated demographic, including those
familiar with the philosophy of Western arts and culture, it is less effective to inf lu-
ence them with a preaching style of propaganda. Therefore, a more efficient way
is to inf luence the inf luencers. When the state system absorbs those self-claimed
independent thinkers who achieve popularity through their original image of inde-
pendence, the system will appear more open and progressive among a demographic
who are oblivious or even hostile to propagandist rhetoric. More importantly, with
an increasing number of such inf luencers integrated into the state system, there
will be fewer public intellectuals who openly confront the authorities.
Meanwhile, the state system has been able to develop by continuously incorpor-
ating elements of the Western arts and culture which it believes will benefit itself.
For instance, from January to February 2022, the 9th Beijing International Art
Biennial, organized by the Beijing Municipal Government, China Federation of
Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC), and CAA, was held at the NAMOC.62 It was
an essential component of the cultural programs that accompanied the Winter
Olympic Games in Beijing. The Biennial exhibited over 700 artworks created by
573 artists from 117 countries. The special exhibition sections included a sculpture
exhibition of Tony Cragg and a prints exhibition of Giorgio Morandi, which was on
loan for the first time from the largest collector of Morandi’s prints in the world.63
In July 2022, the National Museum of China (NMC), under the supervision
of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, initiated an online exhibition with 33
other international museums including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
and Virginia Museum of Fine Art.64 It was called Treasure Hunt Relay: Global
Museum Director’s Choice.65 Each museum director selected five artworks from
their museum’s permanent collection which were exhibited in the online viewing
room hosted on the NMC’s website.
In addition to institutional collaboration with Western art organizations, the
state has been actively offering opportunities to its most loyal talents to travel
overseas and research Western culture to enhance the programs and the scholar-
ship of the system.
In June 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced a list of Ten
Young Curators whose curatorial projects will be sponsored by the Ministry.66
To be selected onto the list is a prestigious honor in the state system and the
applications submitted were heavily screened. Among the ten curatorial projects
that were selected, the majority of them had a strong focus on traditional Chinese
culture (e.g., ink paintings). However, there is one curatorial project that stood
out: a special exhibition dedicated to the female artists whose works are in the
permanent collection of the CAFA Art Museum, curated by Ji Yujie, Director of
Design of CAFA Art Museum. As a young curatorial talent in the leading state-
operated art academy, Ji won a Certificate of Merit at the Benny from the Printing
Industries of America in 201667 and was sponsored by CNAF for a fully funded trip
to New York City to learn from Western art institutions in 2018.68 In 2021, Ji was
chosen as one of the leading curators of the state-sponsored Chengdu Biennial,
which took place in one of the largest cities in Southwest China, Chengdu.
She oversaw the curatorial section of Arts, Design and Fashion.69 As one of the
most dynamic sections of the Biennial, it exhibited artworks by internationally
renowned artists including Alex Da Corte, KAWS, Cao Fei, Helen Marten and
Teppei Kaneuji. Ji has been highly praised by Fan Di’an, President of CAFA and
Chairman of CAA, as part of a new generation of scholars who brought value
to Chinese Curatorial Studies and seeks Chinese solutions for arts and design.70
Ji’s curatorial plan for CAFA Art Museum’s exhibition on women artists well
captured the international trend—for instance, 90% of the artists selected for the
Venice Biennial in 2022 were female artists. In 2022, she was honored again with
sponsorship from CNAF to receive Young Fine Art Criticism Talent Training,71
together with Zhou Wanjing, among others.
The constant promotions and honors that Ji accomplished fully demonstrate

how the state arts and culture system nurtures and rewards its most loyal talents by
providing them with financial support, international exchange, and career devel-
opment opportunities. It is undeniable that in China’s art world where curators
at private museums are often underpaid, and some leading private museums do
not even have a permanent chief curator position,72 such benefits and career tra-
jectories are compellingly attractive to curators and art critics.
In July 2022, the Chinese National Academy of Arts (CNAA), the visual and
performance art research institution under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
released a new book written by the Editor-in-Chief of CNAA’s Chinese Journal of
Art Studies, Sun Xiaoxia. It is called History of the System of Western Arts: from Classical
Greece to the Eighteen Century73 and is claimed to have filled in a gap in the research on
Western art history in the PRC. Sun has been the leader of several visual art research
projects supported by the National Social Science Fund (NSSF),74 including a pro-
ject called Research on the Contemporary Chinese Art System. In 2010, she was one of
the authors who drafted the 12th Five-Year Plan for Culture Development in the PRC,75
an important strategic plan for the arts and culture industry initiated by the central
government. Li Xinfeng, Director and General Secretary of the Party Committee of
CNAA, stated the objective of Sun’s book in the preface he contributed: “Absorbing
Western Resources for Today’s Lessons” 吸收外来资源以资今日之鉴.76 He
applauded that the book upholds a strong stand that the PRC needs to develop its
own art theories. By analyzing the history of Western art, he commented, Sun was
able to challenge those art theories in China purely based on Western cultural the-
ories. In fact, Sun has been actively advocating the necessity of establishing China’s
own art theories. In 2017, at a conference she hosted at CNAA,77 she explicitly
expressed her opinion that Western art theory does not have a universal applica-
tion. Therefore, the PRC needs to find its own art theories. In 2019, she organized
another conference co-hosted by CNAA and the Institute of Marxist Literary
Theory which focused on the methodology of developing China’s own art theor-
etical systems, based on Xi Jinping’s speech at the Symposium on Philosophy and
Social Science in 2016.78 Sun’s continuous ascent within academia was one of many
examples of how scholars within the state are encouraged to research and criticize
Western art theories in order to create the scaffolding for China’s own art history
and art theories. As Xi instructed in his speech in 2016:
To solve China’s problems and propose Chinese solutions, we must adhere

to a Chinese worldview and methodology. If foreign academic thoughts
and methods are regarded as the standard without analysis, and everything
is based on this, then there will be no originality at all. If (we use) foreign
methods and draw the same conclusions foreign people have derived, then
there will be no originality at all.
解决中国的问题，提出解决人类问题的中国方案，要坚持中国人的世界
观、方法论。如果不加分析把国外学术思想和学术方法奉为圭臬，一切以
此为准绳，那就没有独创性可言了。如果用国外的方法得出与国外同样的
结论，那也就没有独创性可言了.79
From the perspective of the state system, the new generation of high-potential
individuals, who have acquired knowledge of Western arts and culture, and are
fully equipped with Marxist theories and Xi Jinping Thought, should shoulder
the responsibility of reinforcing China’s Cultural Confidence in the 21st
Century. This strategy is in line with Xi’s instructions on arts and culture devel-
opment: “Grasp the theme of the times of national rejuvenation” 把握民族复兴
的时代主题80 and Xi’s calling to: “establish China’s cultural power which is the
responsibility of the youth.” 文化强国青年担当.81
A Nuanced Creative Approach by Independent Artists

Adhering to the guidance of Marxism is the fundamental feature that
distinguishes contemporary Chinese culture from other cultures; Adhering
to the fundamental system of Marxism’s guiding position in the ideological
field is a major institutional innovation that drives the long-term develop-
ment of the cause of the Party and the people. To implement the system,
the priority is to ensure the full implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in the whole Party
and society.
坚持以马克思主义为指导，是当代中国文化区别于其他文化的根本标志；
坚持马克思主义在意识形态领域指导地位的根本制度，是关系党和人民
事业长远发展的重大制度创新。落实好这一根本制度，第一位的要求就是
推动全党全社会全面贯彻落实习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想.
—Ouyang Meixue, Director of the Cultural History Research Office of the
Institute of Contemporary China, Op-ed in People’s Daily, July 202282
Today the PRC is the only top-ten-ranked economy measured by GDP that is
not operating as a Western-style democracy. After over four decades of rapid eco-
nomic development, the country’s political and cultural environment, contrary
to the hopes of the Western world, has only gotten more authoritarian.
With the Party intensifying its grip on the ideological control of the arts and
culture sector, the domestic environment for creative production has become
more oppressive and homogenous. Artists who have the courage to express an
alternative voice or nurture a thought-provoking practice not only find less tol-
erance for their creation but also face the formidable hurdle of broadly showing
their artworks domestically. Not all of these artists are able to migrate to another
country or build a studio outside of China. Subsequently, we have witnessed a
phenomenon of aspiring artists exploring a more implicit and nuanced approach
to expressing their artistic and intellectual independence. Philosophically, this
approach is not unlike ancient times, how Chinese literati painters created
reclusive landscape paintings when they faced a turbulent political crisis at the
imperial court.83
Throughout China’s imperial history, poets and literati painters would often
embed hidden and radical ideas in their depiction of landscape themes and motifs.
For instance, the following lines from the poem Embracing Sand 怀沙 by the poet
Qu Yuan in the Warring State Period (340–278 BC), who committed suicide by
throwing himself into the Miluo River during his exile, expressed his profound
frustration and sadness with the political turmoil through the description of late
summer f lowers and trees:
滔滔孟夏兮，草木莽莽。
傷懷永哀兮，汩徂南土。
At the imperial court, direct criticism of the regime could cause imprison-
ment or heavy punishment of the intellectuals and their families. For artists to
implicitly demonstrate their moral integrity and criticism of political oppression,
portraying an imagined landscape—mountains, rocks, rivers, trees, birds, was a
common creative practice. Often, such poetry and paintings were not meant to
be shown in front of a broad audience via public circulation or display. Rather,
they were to be viewed and appreciated privately by friends of similar intellec-
tual pursuits 知音. These poetry and landscape paintings could be exchanged as
a token between artists and their like-m inded friends to communicate with one
another and share their common values. Such implicit ways of artistic expression,
multifaceted, complex and with hidden feelings embedded in a piece of work,
had a long tradition in China’s imperial history. It still deeply resonates with
many living artists in China today. More importantly, it remains a historical ref-
erence and an artistic philosophy that many living Chinese artists have adopted
from time to time during their creative practice.
Scholars in the West have frequently ignored the nuanced creative production
by Chinese contemporary artists under the repressive political situation or tend
to interpret it in a superficial and binary way. For instance, art critic Pauline Yao
wrote in the chapter she contributed to the book Contemporary Art: 1989 to the
Present, “Making it Work: Artists and Contemporary Art in China”:
Since reaching significant economic achievement, contemporary art in

China is plagued by both the absence of politics and the banalization of
politics.84
The following chapters of the book, by providing an in-depth analysis of the

state system and its omnipresent censorship, will help Western observers better
understand the increasingly autocratic environment that contemporary artists
in China operate within. When it proves difficult85 for most Chinese artists to
migrate to a Western country where the freedom of expression is a granted right,
those who continue to create artworks in China, who refuse to be absorbed into
the state system or produce patriotic artworks, deserve to be evaluated with a

more tolerant understanding. Many of them have been trying to diversify their
creative approach and explore innovative ways of artistic expression. Their crit-
ical stance often turns out to be multilayered and requires a more discerning,
sophisticated eye to appreciate. Needless to say, over the past decades a group of
cultured and intelligent Chinese collectors with a more sophisticated aesthetic
judgement have emerged.86 Their appreciation and support of these artists’ cre-
ative production have been crucial to sustaining the artists’ artmaking without
state funding. This phenomenon, over the years, has gradually shaped a vir-
tuous circle for the contemporary art ecosystem in China. It has also formed a
driving force that will sustain the artistic development and intellectual growth of
Chinese contemporary art moving forward.
It is fair to say that many contemporary artists’ creative output is far from an
absence of politics or the banalization of politics. Most importantly, the key to
understanding and interpreting their artworks on a deeper, more philosophical
level, is to avoid judging them from a binary perspective and framework.
For example, on January 20, 2020, artist Ai Song created a temporary site
installation, Wall of Ice, at the frozen Hailang River during the winter season
in Northeast China, the region that has the coldest climate in the PRC. To
create the installation, which only lasted 24 hours on the river, “pellucid slabs
of ice were hewn from a frozen river and layered to construct a storied prison
for the incarceration of effigies sculpted from barbed wire.” The effigies were
based on the portraitures of “writers, academics and many others persecuted by
Communist Party fiat.”87
The next morning, after sunrise, Ai Song demolished Wall of Ice with his
icepick, setting the portraitures captured in the ice-brick free. The nine effigies
which had been confiscated by the authorities “were represented by their empty
ice coffins.”88
The effigies were created by “old barbed wire collected from labor camps”
and included that of the renowned dissident, a former law professor at Tsinghua
University, Xu Zhangrun. Xu was detained for a week in July 2020 and then
fired by Tsinghua University and prevented by the authorities from leaving
Beijing, due to the criticism he had written about the government since 2018. In
an essay in commemoration of Ai Song’s Wall of Ice, Xu wrote:
For a moment The Wall proffered a place of solace gathering up in itself the
incalculable sorrows of our nation’s creation. It confronted the merciless
violence of this realm without f linching, crystallizing in a frozen moment
of choked anguish, breathless as “the noose draws around a throat pulsating
with the lifeblood of freedom.”
The material that Ai Song used to create the effigies, the avatars that he
selected to portray, and the site-specific creative process, all of the elements of
Wall of Ice were full of the artist’s political statement. Although the installation
only existed for less than 24 hours, the artist’s creative endeavor, which took place
in severe weather conditions, unmistakably demonstrated his rage and anguish
towards the repressive political environment and his empathy for the living and
deceased people who suffered in the authoritarian regime.
In May 2020, painter Zhang Xiaogang, who was stuck at home in Beijing
for over a month due to quarantine amidst the pandemic, wrote an essay that
expressed his feelings during his time in isolation:
Every day on the Internet, people get bombarded with all kinds of indis-
criminate and foggy information and get emotional with fear, anger, des-
pair, and tears when hearing of the many tragedies that are happening.
Among those emotions, the most prominent one, I think, is the feeling of
helplessness.
During the past month, although I was not at the center of the epi-
demic, I, like many other people, profoundly experienced the way the
relentlessness of the virus can lead to the vicious brutality of humanity.
With this intertwined horror, naturally I become deeply moved by those
simple kindnesses and pure affections that simultaneously exist. The epi-
demic will eventually end, but the evilness of human nature will have
become deeply embedded in our hearts. As long as the opportunity
matures, it will become activated and quickly devour the soul, making
it rot and stink, and there will be no antidote—this is indeed the most
terrifying virus.89
The body of works that Zhang Xiaogang created during the lockdown
conveyed both his “feeling of helplessness” and the “simple kindnesses” described
in the essay. Several paintings depicted a beam of light that came out of a f lash-
light, a reference to the public mourning in the city of Wuhan, where COVID-
19 first broke out at the end of 2019. When the whistle-blower, the Wuhan-based
ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who had first sent warnings about the virus on
social media and had been subsequently reprimanded by the authorities, died of
COVID-19 on February 7, 2020, his death triggered a massive public outcry.
That evening “the people of Wuhan turned off their lights when Li Wenliang
passed away and, using f lashlights or their cell phones, shot beams of light into
the sky and blew whistles” as their ritual of mourning.90 Zhang created a series
of f lashlight paintings in commemoration of that tragic event. On the evening
of February 7,91 he posted an image of a f lashlight painting on his Weibo and
wrote: “(I am) lighting up a light for Dr. Li tonight.”
In another painting created during his quarantine, Mayfly Diary: February 22,
2020 (Figure 4.1), Zhang painted himself sitting on a brown sofa with his head
covered by a glass jar. His eyes were closed—the subject in the painting was
presumably in a state of meditation or lost in deep thought in a state of isola-
tion and despair. Next to the sofa, the artist’s dog was standing on a stool, with
a blue mask covering his face. The painting also had four individual paper grids,
newgenrtpdf
Mayfly Diary: February 22, 2020; oil on paper with paper collage/54 cm x 73 cm,
FIGURE 4.1 ZXG,
2020. © ZHANG XIAO GANG
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 4.2 Qiu Xiaofei, Trotskyky grew into a tree, oil on linen, 200 cm x 240 cm, 2021.
© Qiu Xiaofei
resembling windows or prison bars. The artist’s sense of suffocation, isolation and
despair was conveyed visually and metaphorically.
As Professor Jonathan Fineberg of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia
well observed in his essay on Zhang Xiaogang’s paintings during the pandemic:
The incomprehensibility of the global tragedy that now engulfs us has

resonances with that national trauma in China in the persistent under-
current of dread as we go about the trivialities of our daily lives.... Those
paintings capture this moment and integrate it into our own time, space,
and memory.92
At the end of 2021, Pace Gallery held a solo exhibition for Beijing-based
artist Qiu Xiaofei in New York, Divination, a title with a reference to a section
of the ancient Chinese poetry The Song of Chu by the poet Qu Yuan (340–278
BC). Due to China’s lengthy border closure during the pandemic, the artist was
not able to travel to New York and attend the opening. The exhibition showed
a group of works created during the pandemic, depicting an imagined world,
where mythological creatures exist in a fairy-t ale biosphere.
One of the signature paintings in this group of works, Trotskyky grew into a
tree (Figure 4.2), a title based on Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary whose
theories had a profound impact on Chinese intellectuals in the 20th Century,
including Qiu’s grandparents.93 The color palette consists of light indigo, pink,
lemon ocher, orange, red and green, reminiscent of the colors of Renaissance
paintings. A Madonna and Child-like composition dominates two-thirds of the
painting. When viewed closely, we see a giant motherly creature, part-human,
part-tree, part-cephalopod. She is holding a mustached child-like being to her
breast. At the pair’s front and left side, three similar-looking creatures are crawling
around them, arms stretching forward as if they are in an endless search for an
unknown treasure. In the middle of the painting, a tree-like organism grows
upward, branches reaching out to the sky, and a tiny child-like face appears
on top. The left side of the canvas portrays a whimsical tree of large f lowers
blooming. The upper left side of the painting shows brown and green moun-
tain ranges in an indigo blue-sky background. Four Neptune-shaped planets
of different sizes, each with a ring in blue, light gray and beige, are suspended
in space.
The painting depicts a self-contained and elusive world, where humans are
not part of the narrative. The creatures, the f lowers, and the planets, deeply
intertwined with one another, are full of tenderness. They are inhabiting a world
that is not of this world. Everything is in motion yet nothing ages. The painting
is full of life. When facing the work, we desire to reach out to the living creatures
that are lost in an alien world of contemplation. Staring at the painting for an
extended period, we are elevated to an illuminated space above Earth, between
planets, leaving our mundane daily life behind.
Certainly, one of the most sophisticated paintings by Qiu Xiaofei to date,

Trotskyky grew into a tree elicits our deep sense of reverence for the universe and
other living beings. And yet, the story depicted in the painting carries an element
of indecipherability.
When I visited Qiu in Beijing in early 2020, I saw the artist’s inspiration wall
in his studio. It had drawings inspired by an old photograph of Leon Trotsky. It
is an image deeply embedded in the subconscious of the artist’s mind (The artist’s
father, who passed away one year prior to my visit due to illness, suffered in China
because of his interest in Trotsky’s theories). In these drawings, the feature of
Trotsky was reconstructed into various motifs of fictional creatures, whose arms
and limbs grew into the shapes of snakes and tree branches, intertwined with one
another. The iconic image of the Russian revolutionary was transformed into a
set of visual elements of a world beyond our own.
Qiu’s latest body of work, Trotskyky grew into a tree in particular, demonstrates
a new stage in his creative philosophy which explores a symbiotic world of fan-
tastical creatures, nature and the universe. Human existence, in contrast to the
organic evolution of nature and the universe, slowly disappears. Qiu quoted Qu
Yuan’s poetry Divination to express his thoughts on the series of creations:
詹尹乃释策而谢，曰：“夫尺有所短，寸有所长，物有所不足，智有所不明，
数有所不逮，神有所不通。用君之心，行君之意，龟策诚不能知事.”
According to the explanation of Qu Yuan’s poem Divination by the renowned

scholar Xu Yuanchong, “People in ancient China used divination to solve their
doubts. ‘Divination’ means to solve their doubts of ‘where to go’ through the
diviner, for instance, what attitude to adopt to face social reality.”94 In the same
poem, Qu Yuan asked the questions of whether he should act in an honest way
and stay truthful to his integrity in a turbulent society.
The answers provided by the diviner, as quoted by Qiu Xiaofei for his exhib-
ition, were also the answers Qu Yuan gave to himself—that he should follow his
heart because there are things in life that cannot be predicted by diviners. For
the new series of paintings, Qiu Xiaofei’s implication is clear through the title of
the exhibition and his quote on Qu Yuan’s poetry. His creative approach can best
be described by Jed Perl:
The artist in the act of creation— working through particular words,

sounds, colors, shapes, and their infinite combinations—almost inevit-
ably risks irrelevance. But the decision to reject doing in favor of making,
which some have described as a retreat into self-absorption and narcissism,
is in fact an act of courage. Artists reenter the world by sending the work
that they’ve made back into the world, where it lives on—independent,
inviolable—in what Auden called “the valley of its making.” That is a place
apart—paradoxically, triumphantly apart.95
The temporary, site-specific installation by Ai Song, and the paintings by

Zhang Xiaogang and Qiu Xiaofei during the pandemic, are creations by Chinese
artists that directly ref lect their contemplation on the deep questions in society,
life, and nature. Perhaps the everchanging environment that Chinese con-
temporary artists face has stimulated them to expand their artistic exploration
through the use of allegories to interrogate the chaos that is before us.
In Part III of the book, I will dive into more details on the topic by examining
the creative practice of more contemporary artists living in China. To further
ref lect on Yao’s comments, I argue that the fundamental issue with ongoing cre-
ative production in China is not the lack of politics, but the absence of channels
in the country to effectively present the artworks to a broader audience due to the
ubiquity of censorship. Meanwhile, how artists create works without impugning
their integrity and submitting to the dominating Party rhetoric is a crucial yard-
stick to evaluate their practice.
The following two chapters will analyze the current infrastructure of the state-
supported art system and the CCP’s goal to turn the arts and culture sector into
an important engine of China’s GDP growth. Despite the fact that art institutions,
artist associations and propagandistic exhibitions in the state system have rarely
been written about by the international press and Western art critics, they are far
from living in obscurity. Organizations and artists in the system, who have an
undeniable mission to glorify the authority and the achievement of the CCP, have
been enjoying the direct benefits of state funding and exhibition opportunities at
state-r un museums.
Meanwhile, a paradox that lies within the state art system is how the Party is
going to accommodate its two objectives at the same time: to further enhance
the patriotic rhetoric in the artworks and to bolster the economic performance
of the art sector under state patronage. Given how the CCP’s cadre evaluation
system operates, this paradox is likely to remain a considerable challenge for the
Party to accomplish its economic goals for the arts industry. As Shih, Adolph and
Liu pointed out in their joint paper in 2012, “Getting Ahead in the Communist
Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China”:
Chinese leaders, however, did not apply the cadre management system
to encourage growth…we find no evidence that provincial officials who
generated higher-than-average growth or higher-than-expected growth
were rewarded with higher-party ranks in any year and on any measure…
CCP cadre management institutions also delivered promotions to followers
of senior party leaders. Leaders were able to stay in power because they
engaged in factional politics instead of selecting the most capable officials.96
We can therefore predict the same for the state art system: what matters
the most to its constituencies is their loyalty to the Party’s rhetoric, Xi Jinping
Thought in particular. Whether the leadership at the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism and local provincial bureaus of culture can achieve substantial economic
growth in the arts and culture industry will be a secondary criterion to judge
their administrative efficacy. As a result, whether China will be able to clearly
define97 and accomplish its objective of turning the country into an international
culture powerhouse by 2035 is yet to be seen.
Notes
1 www.chnmuseum.cn/z x/gbxw/202203/t 20220311_ 254279.shtml.
2 Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2021, “Hong Kong Is Erasing the Tiananmen Square
Massacre.”
3 www.artnews.com/a rt-news/news/pillar-of-shame-removal-hong-kong-op-ed-123
4614786/.
4 www.artnews.com/a rt-news/news/pillar-of-shame-removal-hong-kong-op-ed-123
4614786/.
5 www.state.gov/m ark i ng-one-year-of-hong-kongs-national-secur ity-law/.
6 Guardian, September 9, 2021, “Hong Kong police raid Tiananmen massacre museum.”
Massacre.”
Massacre.”
9 Washington Post, “U.S. law firm Mayer Brown to cease work for University of Hong
Kong in dispute over Tiananmen memorial’s removal,” October 15, 2021.
10 France 24, “Global law firm stops representing HKU in Tiananmen sculpture row,”
October 16, 2021 (www.france24.com/en/l ive-news/20211016-g lobal-law-f irm-
stops-representi ng-h ku-i n-t iananmen-sculptu re-row).
11 Hong Kong Free Press, “HKU Tiananmen Massacre statue row: Ex-Hong Kong leader
CY Leung urges investigation and boycott of law firm Mayer Brown,” October
18, 2021 (https://hong kong fp.com/2021/10/18/h ku-t ianan men-m assacre-stat ue-
row- ex-hong-kong-leader- c y-leung-u rges-i nvest igat ion-a nd-boycott- of-l aw-f irm-
mayer-brown/).
12 www.ft.com/content/5383949a- 45e9– 41a0-bd8d-914c63968b76.
13 www.smi t hso n ian m ag.com/s mart- n ews/ h ong- kong- r emoves- p ilar- o f- s hame-
tiananmen-squa re-memorial-180979291/.
14 https://journa ls.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/7872.
15 It was demolished later to make space for the development of luxury residential
buildings.
16 www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2016/content_ 5070760.htm.
17 According to the Culture Relics Law of the PRC, artworks that have over a 100-
year-old history or those on a special list announced by the Ministry of Culture,
cannot be sold overseas.
18 The Regulation of Art Management, issued by the Ministry of Culture in 2016.
19 Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the
Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s Century-long Struggle,
Announced at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China in November, 2021 (www.gov.cn/zhengce/2021–11/16/
content_ 5651269.htm).
21 Based on the author’s interview with artists who participated in the Biennial.
22 In March 2018, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism were
consolidated into one: Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
23 A frequently cited example is that the outspoken artist Ai Weiwei, who was actively
criticizing the CCP when he practiced in China, now lives in Cambridge, UK, and
his name is not allowed to be mentioned by the domestic press in China.
24 https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=171149754 4958769107&wfr=spider&for=pc.
25 www.e-f lux.com/jour nal/07/61393/a-g ame-played-w ithout-r ules-has-no-losers/.
26 www.hiart.cn/featu re/deta il/615hwBt.html.
27 Including Liu Gang.
28 Kejia Wu, TEFAF Chinese Art Market Report 2019 https://2019.amr.tefaf.com/.
29 http://opin ion.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0708/c1003–32469390.html.
30 Charles Dellheim, Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern,
Brandeis University Press, 2021.
31 Due to the stringent criteria of admitting undergraduate students and hiring faculties,
the top art academies in the PRC, which are all funded by the state, generally attract
the best art students in the country.
32 Many top independent contemporary artists that I have spoken with, have said
that they have not been to the NAMOC for years, because they constantly put on
patriotic-themed exhibitions which has become the Museum’s political responsibility
under supervision of the CCP.
33 Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace and David Zwirner.
34 www.qstheory.cn/dukan/qs/2022– 06/30/c _1128786667.htm.
35 Hélène Delacour, The Decline and Fall of the Paris Salon: a Study of the Deinstitutionalization
Process of a Field Configuring Event in the Cultural Activities, Bernard Leca, 2011.
36 www.tagar t museum.com/cn/category/exh ibit ion-l ist/deta il!exh ibit ion-Beyond.
37 www.sohu.com/a/417101374_ 278692.
38 For example, the Beijing Fine Art Academy’s collections and programs are focused
on ink paintings. When Wu Hongliang curated exhibitions for private museums, he
included videos and installations.
39 www.sohu.com/a/107693706_149159.
40 www.cafa.edu.cn/st/2022/90121820.htm.
41 http://a rt.china.cn/voice/2013–03/12/content_5792673.htm.
43 www.faurschou.com/new-york/e xhibitions/ l iu-x iaod ong- uumman n aq/i nsta l lat
ion-v iew-01/.
44 www.faurschou.com/a rtist-l ist/l iu-x iaodong/.
45 Specifically the cases of Qiu Zhijie and Liu Xiaodong, their work was widely
recognized by the West as being thought-provoking artists and from that gained
acclaim in China.
46 www.sd.chinanews.com.cn/2/2021/0906/80279.html.
47 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/202206/t 20220617_933956.htm.
49 中共中央关于加强党的政治建设的意见 www.gov.cn/zhengce/2019– 02/27/cont
ent_ 5369070.htm.
50 Joseph Fewsmith, Rethinking Chinese Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
51 www.moe.gov.cn/f bh/l ive/2022/54301/mtbd/202203/t 20220318_608685.html.
52 www.bisu.edu.cn/a rt/2021/11/1/a rt_18955_ 286869.html.

59 https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1660831882330381805&wfr=spider&for=pc.
60 Observed by the author on WeChat.
62 www.namoc.org/x wzx/x w/2022/202201/t 20220127_ 330354.htm.
63 www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2022/01–23/9659436.shtml.
64 www.chnmuseum.cn/z x/gbxw/202207/t 20220706_ 256624.shtml.
65 www.chnmuseum.cn/porta ls/0/web/zt/g mdc2022/.
66 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/w ysy/202206/t 20220620_933985.html.
67 www.cafa.com.cn/cn/opinions/i nterviews/deta i ls/548913.
68 www.sohu.com/a/367576882_184457.
69 www.sohu.com/a/506537336 _120 099885.
70 www.chinabookinternational.org/books/t ushuzhong x in/2021/1210/293995.shtml.
72 For example, Long Museum, Fosun Art Center and TANK Shanghai, have achieved
strong international and domestic publicity, do not have chief curators or permanent
curator positions.
73 www.zgysy jy.org.cn/monog raph _ deta il/8127.html.
74 Projects funded by the National Social Science Fund are considered the highest-level
government research projects in the fields of philosophy and social sciences. They
include three disciplines: art, education and military science. The National Social
Science Fund art project thus is the highest-level government funded research project
in the field of arts and culture in the PRC. (https://phil.bnu.edu.cn/x yxw/83788.
html).
75 www.zgysy jy.org.cn/character_deta il/3999.html.
76 https://d.wanfa ngdata.com.cn/periodical/g zdx xb-ysb2021040 06.
77 www.art-woman.com/CriticAr t ical Deta il.aspx?cid=48&atype=1&aid=390.
78 http://sky.cssn.cn/ysx/ysx_ysqs/201907/t 20190703_4928956.shtml.
79 http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0519/c64094–28361550.html.
80 www.caanet.org.cn/newsdeta il.mx?id=8574.
81 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/bnsj/bgt_bn sj/202206/t 20220620_933983.html.
82 http://opin ion.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0708/c1003–32469390.html.
83 https://a sia society.org/new-york/exhibitions/a rt f ul-reclu se-paint i ng-poet ry-a nd-
polit ics-17th- cent u ry- china.
84 Alexander Blair Dumbadze and Suzanne Perling Hudson, Contemporary Art: 1989 to
the Present, John Wiley & Sons, February 2013.
85 This includes, but is not limited to, language barriers, and the difficulties of applying
for a foreign residence and sufficient funding to migrate overseas.
86 Examples were provided in Part I.
87 https://chinahe rit a ge.net/jour n al/i n-memor i am- s hrouds- of-ice- on- a - r iver-i nca
rnadi ne/.
88 https://chinahe rit a ge.net/jour n al/i n-memor i am- s hrouds- of-ice- on- a - r iver-i nca
rnadi ne/.
89 www.paceg allery.com/journal/a rtists-respond-zhang-x iaoga ng/.
90 https://supchi na.com/2020/02/10/a nger-a nd-g rief-a fter-w uhan-doctors-death/.
91 https://weibo.com/u/1899826851.
92 https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2020/05/21/zhang-x iaogangs-respon se-to-the-pandem ic/.

93 www.paceg allery.com/exhibitions/qiu-x iaofei- d iv i nat ion/.
94 Elegies of the South (Classical Chinese Poetry and Prose Series), (English-Chinese
Edition), Translated by Xu Yuanchong, China Intercontinental Press, 2012.
95 Jed Perl, Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, Penguin Random House, 2022.
96 www.cambrid ge.org/core/journ a ls/a merican-political- science-rev iew/a rticle/abs/
getti ng-a head-i n-t he-communi st-party-expl aini ng-t he-advancement-of-centr al-
committee-members-i n-china/B22B6ACD187AD664CCCD6497E6A165BE.
97 To define the objective and what the overarching goal entails is not clear yet. A request
by the government for research on this topic has been made.
5
THE ROLE OF ARTS AND CULTURE
IN TODAY’S CHINA
Today, China has become the world’s second-largest economy. The socialist
system with Chinese characteristics rooted in China’s unique cultural heri-
tage has demonstrated significant advantages. The great rejuvenation of the
Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.
We must strengthen our cultural confidence, strengthen our recog-
nition of Chinese civilization, seek the source of socialism with Chinese
characteristics from the excellent tradition of Chinese culture, insist on
combining the basic principles of Marxism with the excellent tradition
of Chinese culture, and promote the creative transformation, innova-
tive development, and activate the vitality of the excellent tradition
of Chinese culture, and let the Chinese civilization work with other
civilizations created by the people of all countries to provide the correct
spiritual guidance for mankind.
今天，中国已经成为世界第二大经济体，植根于中国独特文化传承的中国
特色社会主义制度表现出了显著优势，中华民族伟大复兴进入了不可逆
转的历史进程。
我们必须坚定文化自信，增强对中华文明的认同，从中华优秀传统文化
中寻找中国特色社会主义的源头活水，坚持把马克思主义基本原理同中
华优秀传统文化相结合，推动中华优秀传统文化实现创造性转化、创新性
发展，激活其生命力，让中华文明同各国人民创造的多彩文明一道，为人
类提供正确精神指引。
—Chen Zhigang, Director of the Research Department of Xi Jinping Thought
on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Institute of Marxism,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “Strengthen our Cultural confidence
and Strengthen the Spirit of being Chinese,” an op-ed in Guangming Daily,
July 20221
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-7
In January 2022, after a year-long celebration of the CCP’s 100th anniversary

since its founding in 1921, the CCP entered its second century on a high note.
For its new journey and second century of rule 第二个百年新征程, the Party
developed a set of strategic goals. “By the 100th year since the founding of the
PRC (2049), China is to build a powerful, modern, socialist country that is
prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful”
第二个一百年，是到新中国成立100年时建成富强民主文明和谐美丽的社会主
义现代化强国. To assist the Party to achieve these strategic goals, artists and
writers in China, according to the requirements, need to shoulder strong respon-
sibilities. As Xi pointed out during his speech at the 11th Congress of CFLAC in
December 2021:
The vast number of literary and art professionals need to lead in setting
the right cultural values, cultural cohesion and a driving spiritual force
for the second centennial goal of realizing the Chinese dream of the great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
广大文艺工作者要为实现第二个百年奋斗目标、实现中华民族伟大复兴的
中国梦提供强大的价值引导力、文化凝聚力、精神推动力2
To help the public better understand the messages of Xi Jinping Thought on

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era 习近平新时代中国特色
社会主义思想, the state media organization China Central Television (CCTV)
applied its big data technology to analyze the speeches by Xi in December 2021
and highlighted the key words on its website to help identify “the dominant
guiding principle”3 that will lead the country to accomplish its goals. In addition
to the broadly discussed words such as “economy,” “people” and “development,”
words like “literature and art” 文艺 and “literature and arts professionals” 文艺
工作者 were among the most frequently used words in his speeches.4 According
to CCTV, the frequent appearance of these words is worth the public’s special
attention, because these ref lect the high priority that literature and art should play
based on Xi Jinping Thought.
In fact, December 2021 marked a milestone in the state arts and culture5 system
in China. On December 14, the 11th Congress of CFLAC 中国文学艺术界联合
会 took place at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, a gigantic building located
on the west side of Tiananmen Square where the CCP normally holds its most
important activities, including the quinquennial National Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party (NCCCP). Nearly 3,000 visual and performing artist and writer
members of CFLAC participated in the event.6
The 11th Congress of CFLAC was held one month after the Sixth Plenary
Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the CCP,7 where the Party
announced an authoritative document that summarized its accomplishments
over the past century and laid out the guidelines for its ruling over the next
100 years: Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the
The Role of Arts and Culture in Today’s China 109
major achievements and historical experience of the Party’s century-long struggle 中共中
央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议.8
The Party’s collective effort of drafting this document, which began in
March 2021, took eight months to complete.9 It was directly overseen by Xi
himself and went through multiple review processes by the Politburo. The
Resolution was one of the most pivotal documents issued by the CCP. In the
document, a section was dedicated to cultural construction 文化建设 in
China. Significant development of the culture industry has been named one
of the 13 achievements that the CCP had accomplished since 2012 under Xi’s
leadership.10
Almost six months later, in April 2022, in an op-ed published by People’s Daily,
one of the central publications of the CCP, Hu Heping, Minister of Culture
and Tourism and Deputy Minister of Propaganda, called on artists in the state
system to continue studying Xi’s instructions on the culture sector laid out in the
Resolution.11 The Resolution:
has profoundly elaborated on the struggle of the Party in leading cultural

construction over the past century, especially the systematic summary of
the major achievements of the Party in leading cultural construction for
the new era. It has pointed out the way forward and provided us with
fundamental guidelines to perform well in cultural work for the new era.
《决议》对百年来党领导文化建设的奋斗历程进行了深刻阐述，特别是对
新时代党领导文化建设的重大成就进行了系统总结，为我们做好新时代
文化工作指明了前进方向、提供了根本遵循12
One of the conclusions in the Resolution stated:
The Party insists on leading cultural construction with core socialist values,
focusing on cultivating the roots and shaping souls with advanced socialist
culture, revolutionary culture and with the excellence of traditional Chinese
culture, widely carrying out propaganda and educating on socialism with
Chinese characteristics and the Chinese dream, promoting the normalization
and institutionalization of education on ideals and beliefs, and improving the
ideological and political work system.
党坚持以社会主义核心价值观引领文化建设，注重用社会主义先进文化、
革命文化、中华优秀传统文化培根铸魂，广泛开展中国特色社会主义和
中国梦宣传教育，推动理想信念教育常态化制度化，完善思想政治工作体
系13
The 11th Congress of CFLAC, hosted by Xi and attended by the entire Standing
Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee,14 a rare
meeting of the highest-level committee members, reinforced Xi’s determination
to strengthen these messages among the artists and writers in China. As stated by
Tie Ning, Chairman of CFLAC:
Xi’s important speech (at the Congress of CFLAC) was his mobilization
order issued to Chinese literature and art professionals, that takes into
account the historical perspective of the new journey for the new era,
and the strategy for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and
the world’s unprecedented changes not seen in a century.... For every
Chinese writer and artist with noble aspirations, being loyal to art means
being loyal to the motherland and the people, being committed to the
mission of art means being committed to the great cause of the nation,
and being in pursuit of art means being in pursuit of the glorious future
of the nation.
习近平总书记在中国文联十一大、中国作协十大开幕式上的重要讲话，是
站在新时代新征程的历史方位上，站在中华民族伟大复兴战略全局和世
界百年未有之大变局的历史高度上，向中国广大文艺工作者发出的动员
令…每一位心怀壮志的中国作家艺术家，对艺术的忠诚必定是对祖国和人
民的忠诚，对艺术使命的担当必定是对民族大业的担当，对艺术的追求必
定是对民族光辉前景的追求15
The 11th Congress of CFLAC started with all the participants standing up
and singing the national anthem.16 In Xi’s speech that followed, he articulated his
expectation for the artists and writers:
To achieve the prosperity and development of socialist arts and literature

and build a country that has socialist cultural power, (the arts and culture
industry) is required, under the leadership of the Party, to unite patriotic
and dedicated literary and art professionals, and to nurture a large number
of writers and artists who have both political integrity and talent.
繁荣发展社会主义文艺、建设社会主义文化强国，需要在党的领导下，广
泛团结凝聚爱国奉献的文艺工作者，培养造就一大批德才兼备的文学家、
艺术家
Literary and art professionals need to enhance their cultural awareness,

strengthen their cultural confidence, actively participate in the building of
a country that has socialist cultural power with a strong historical perspec-
tive, and adhere to the direction of serving the people and socialism. (They
must) show the new atmosphere of Chinese literature and art, create a new
glory of Chinese culture, and lead in setting the right cultural values, cul-
tural cohesion and a driving spiritual force for the second centennial goal
of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese
nation.
广大文艺工作者要增强文化自觉、坚定文化自信，以强烈的历史主动精
神，积极投身社会主义文化强国建设，坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务
方向. 展示中国文艺新气象，铸就中华文化新辉煌，为实现第二个百年奋
斗目标、实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦提供强大的价值引导力、文化凝
聚力、精神推动力
Artists and writers must deeply grasp the theme of the era of national reju-
venation and closely combine the pursuit of their personal lives and art-
istic lives with the future of the country, the destiny of the nation and the
aspirations of the people.
广大文艺工作者要深刻把握民族复兴的时代主题，把人生追求、艺术生
命同国家前途、民族命运、人民愿望紧密结合起来17
Directly overseen by the Ministry of Propaganda, which is under the direct

control of the Central Committee of the CCP, CFLAC was established in July
1949, a few months before the PRC was founded. It is the largest state-supported,
and most important organization that supervises all the associations of visual arts,
performing arts and writers in the country. As of June 2021, the number of artists
and writers associated with the various subordinate institutional organizations
of CFLAC was over 4.2 million.18 As Xi stated at the 10th Congress of CFLAC
in 2016:
For the Party and the Chinese government, CFLAC and the China Writers
Association are the bridge and link to the literature and art professionals in
China. They have an important responsibility to unite them.
中国文联、中国作协是党和政府联系广大文艺工作者的桥梁纽带，在团结
文艺工作者方面负有重要职责19
CFLAC consists of 55 institutional members,20 including the national-

level China Artists Association, China Film Association, Chinese Musicians
Association, China Writers Association, China Calligraphy Association, China
Theatre Association, as well as the Literary and Art Circles of various provinces
in the PRC. The renowned folksinger and actress Peng Liyuan, the spouse of
Xi Jinping, was elected the Vice Chairman of CFLAC in 2011, one year before
her husband was elected to his current post as the General Secretary of the
CCP and Chairman of China. Since then, she has been serving as one of the
members of the Chairman Committee 主席团, a select committee that makes
the most important CFLAC executive decisions. Although there have not been
any official speeches or published instructions by Peng as the Vice Chairman of
CFLAC, the fact that her tenure at the top leadership team of CFLAC has almost
been in parallel with Xi Jinping’s tenure as Party General Secretary ref lects the
prioritized status of arts and culture.
To explain why the arts and culture industry is profoundly important to Xi,
the bimonthly magazine published by the CCP Central Committee, Qiu Shi 求
是, wrote in 2014 after Xi held the first Forum on Literary and Art 文艺工作座
谈会 since he was elected the General Secretary of the CCP:
In his mind…literature and art are important forces to realize the Chinese
dream. Besides, literature and art carry such weight in Xi’s mind because per-
sonally he loves literature and art, and calls himself a “senior literary youth.”
He is familiar with the current state of art and culture development in China
and abroad.21
在他心目中，文艺…是实现中国梦的重要力量。文艺在习大大心目中如此
有分量，和他个人对文艺的喜爱也密不可分。习大大堪称“资深文青”，对
当前的文艺现状和国内外的文化发展情况相当熟悉。
The Strategic Plan, a Decade in the Making

The Six Plenum of the 19th Party Congress passed the “Resolution of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on the Major
Achievements and Historical Experiences of the Party’s 100 Years.”
The Resolution pointed out that: For the Party to establish the status of
Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the Party’s Central Committee and of
the whole Party, and to establish the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought
on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era, expresses the
deepest wishes of the whole Party, the whole military, and the peoples of
the whole country.
党的十九届六中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就
和历史经验的决议》指出：党确立习近平同志党中央的核心、全党的核心
地位，确立习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的指导地位，反映了全党
全军全国各族人民共同心愿。
During the Party’s experience of a century- long struggle, the “Two

Establishes” is a profound summarization of the most important polit-
ical achievements and is the most significant articulation since the 18th
NCCCP. This is the most important result in the new historical era for
socialism with Chinese characteristics.
两个确立”的提出，是对党的百年奋斗历史经验特别是党的十八大以来伟
大实践经验的深刻总结，是中国特色社会主义进入新时代的历史条件下
形成的最重要政治成果。22
—Qu Qingshan, Director of the Central Party History and
Archive Research Institute, “Understanding ‘Two Establishes’
from the Future Dimension,” July 2022
Throughout the CCP’s centennial history, arts and culture have always played a
vital role in the Party’s ideological development and supervision of the cadres. In
May 1942, seven years before the founding of the PRC, Chairman Mao spoke at
The Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art 毛泽东在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话.23
This speech, perceived as one of the cornerstones of “Mao Zedong Thought,”
defined the ideological framework of the CCP’s policies on literature and arts.
It still functions as an overarching guideline for the state system to supervise the
arts and culture industry today. The purpose of the speech was to address the
fundamental question and principle, “art and literature is ‘for whom?’ ”24 Mao’s
answers, articulated in a speech 80 years ago, offer a pertinent historical reference
and ideological foundation for the Party to shape its policies. For instance, these
phrases have been constantly quoted by policy-m akers and opinion leaders in
the state system: “all our literature and art are for the masses”; “literature and art
are subordinate to politics, but in their turn exert a great inf luence on politics”;
“through the creative labor of revolutionary writers and artists, the raw materials
found in the life of the people are shaped into the ideological form of literature
and art serving the masses.”25
In April 2022, one month before the 80th anniversary of The Yan’an Forum
on Literature and Art, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism published a booklet
that included Mao’s speech given in 1942 and several of Xi’s speeches on arts and
literature since 2012.26 The Ministry organized study sessions among its entire
staff to “revisit the spirit of the speeches” and to “inherit the spirit of Yan’an,
enhance cultural confidence and understand the Party’s role in advanced cul-
ture.”27 Evidently, Mao’s instructions in his speech at The Yan’an Forum on
Literature and Art are still celebrated by the state as the ultimate principles for
artists and writers to follow in the 21st century.
This was one of the numerous examples that ref lected the unwavering rigidity
of the Party’s ideological control: Mao’s instructions on arts and culture in his
speech in 1942 cannot be challenged. Rather, it has to be memorized and studied
continuously. Additional instructions by the Party leadership (e.g., Xi’s speeches)
on arts and culture are established based on the “spirit” of Mao’s talk. The Party’s
ideological framework is shaped by the ideas and theories conveyed in these
speeches. The artists who are endorsed by the state system can only accomplish
their professional success by strictly operating within the framework. Once they
choose to stay in the system, not only will their creative space be limited, but their
liberty to question the theories will be restrained. Unsurprisingly, such a con-
formist approach drives uniformity in the outcome of much of the artistic creation
by living artists in the state system.
Although artworks by artists in the state system are mostly not considered
groundbreaking by Western critics and the Western market, often they can
achieve astronomically high values in the Chinese art market if the artists are
well established in the state system. For instance, the oil paintings by the painter
Jin Shangyi (b. 1934) who was previously chancellor of the Central Academy
of Fine Arts from 1987 to 2001 and the Chairman of China Artists Association
from 1998 to 2008, have been well sought-after in the domestic art market.
In 1983 he created two almost identical paintings called Tajik Bride, with the
only difference being that the bride wore slightly different necklaces.28 The two
paintings, made to look like 19th-century European salon realism paintings,
were claimed by Jin as a breakthrough in his artistic creation that matched the
aesthetic standard of Western visual art. They have been applauded as pioneering
works of China’s New Classism Movement29 which advanced the develop-
ment of Chinese oil paintings.30 In November 2013, one of the two Tajik Bride
portraitures achieved an auction record of RMB 85 million (USD 13 million)
at China Guardian’s auction in Beijing.31 The other Tajik Bride portrait is in the
permanent collection of NAMOC. It was selected by CNAA as one of the iconic
A Hundred Arts and Literature Works created since Mao’s speech in Yan’an in 1942,
a prestigious honor to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the speech.32
Mao’s speech took place in the middle of the revolution and WWII, when
politics was the dominating theme that permeated all literature and art creation.
The speech had the clear goal of mobilizing writers and artists to create work
that served the politics of the Party at the time—revolution. As Mao instructed
in the speech, the purpose of art and literature is to “provide better help to other
revolutionary work in facilitating the overthrow of our national enemy and the
accomplishment of the task of national liberation.”33
Decades after the founding of the PRC, and since the Party initiated the
Reform and Opening-Up policy in the late 1970s, the domestic art market grew
substantially.34 For the state, the role of arts and culture has gradually expanded
beyond merely “exerting a great inf luence on politics.” Once it was recognized
that there is substantial commercial value in arts and culture, the state made a
decision to bring an additional role to the industry, contributing to the GDP
growth of the country.
In November 2012, when the 18th NCCCP selected Xi Jinping as the new
General Secretary of the CCP, it also introduced the “Five-in-One” 五位一
体 master plan “to realize socialist modernization and the great rejuvenation
of the Chinese nation.” The “Five-in-One” master plan includes Economic,
Political, Cultural, Social, and Ecological Advancement, where the development
of culture is a core pillar.35 The official report of the 18th NCCCP, delivered by
General Secretary of the CCP Hu Jintao (2002–2012), Xi’s predecessor, stated
that by 2020 the goal of the arts and culture industry was to become “a pillar
industry of the national economy”36 of the PRC.
Subsequently, over the following decade, a number of meetings organized by
Xi in the state’s arts and culture sector, accompanied by governmental initiatives,
reinforced the Party’s more stringent ideological supervision and its drive to bol-
ster the economic value of the arts and culture industry. This was a systematic
process, communicated through several speeches by Xi on arts and culture, and
implemented by the state system from the central government to the provinces.
What differentiated Xi’s policies from those of his predecessors Hu Jintao, Jiang
Zemin and Deng Xiaoping, was the firm establishment of Xi Jinping Thought
on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. As announced at the

19th NCCCP in October 2017, Xi Jinping Thought was written into the Revised
Constitution of the CCP issued that year.37 The decision officially elevated his
ideological guidelines to the same status as Mao Zedong Thought. Accordingly,
The Congress urges all Party members to use Xi Jinping Thought on

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to achieve unity in
thinking and action, be more purposeful and determined in studying and
applying it and put the Thoughts into action throughout the drive toward
China’s socialist modernization and in every dimension of Party building.
大会要求全党以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想统一思想和行动，增
强学习贯彻的自觉性和坚定性，把习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想贯
彻到社会主义现代化建设全过程、体现到党的建设各方面38
It was the first time since Mao that the General Secretary’s vision and theory
on China’s development were branded as a “Thought” and thus would be infused
into each aspect of the political, cultural, and economic growth of the country.
In the arts and culture sector, what we are witnessing is the most significant,
top-down state endeavor to strengthen Chinese arts and cultural identity since
the Cultural Revolution.
Moreover, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee
of the CCP in 2021, which approved the Resolution of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China on the major achievements and historical experience of the
party’s century-long struggle, also announced that:
The Party has established the status of Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of
the Party’s Central Committee and of the whole Party and has established
the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics for a New Era.
两个确立：党确立习近平同志党中央的核心、全党的核心地位，确立习近
平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的指导地位.39
This decision, also called the “Two Establishments” 两个确立, further solidi-
fied Xi Jinping Thought and requires his overarching instructions to be strictly
carried out throughout the country, including in the arts and culture sector. The
impact is profound.
A few days after the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee
of the CCP, China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News, a daily newspaper
published by the CCP, claimed that the “Two Establishments” were the Party’s
most significant political achievement since the 18th NCCPC in 2012.40 This
was because “(the Two Establishments are) of decisive significance to the devel-
opment of the cause of the Party and the country for the new era and promote the
inevitable process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” 对新时代党和

国家事业发展、对推进中华民族伟大复兴历史进程具有决定性意义.
In March 2022, the General Office of the CCP issued an order that needed
to be strictly followed across all the state bureaus and institutions in China. This
order, called Opinions on promoting the normalization and long-term effectiveness of
party history learning and education 关于推动党史学习教育常态化长效化的意见,41
required that government employees continuously study the core meanings of
the “Two Establishments” and “insist that the learning of Xi Jinping Thought
on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is treated as their very
top priority” 坚持把学习习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想作为重中之重.42
To “relentlessly arm your mind with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” 坚持不懈用习近平新时代中国特色社会
主义思想武装头脑,43 is required by the order, and ref lects how important Party
ideology penetrates into the state arts and culture system.
The system operates using a well-organized, meticulously calculated, top-
down approach: Xi gave speeches at CFLAC and elaborated on his expect-
ation for the development of arts and culture in China. Following each speech,
within weeks, the Party committees of every state-r un arts and culture organ-
ization hosted dedicated study sessions on the speech, all required attendance
of senior management. In some instances, the full text of what the senior
management team learned from the “spirit of the speech” 讲话精神 would
be published on the website of the organization as an individual essay. These
essays would start off by praising how visionary and inspiring Xi’s speech was,
then demonstrate how their commitment to following Xi’s guidance would
enhance their work at the organization. The content of the essays across the
organizations is mostly repetitive. In most cases, the essays would declare their
loyalty to the Party and their determination to follow the Party leader’s call,
which is a crucial part of their political duty. For instance, after Xi’s speech at
the 11th Congress of CFLAC on the morning of December 14, 2021, senior
leaders of CAA44 who participated in the Congress of CFLAC convened in the
afternoon to ref lect on how the “spirit of the speech” left them illuminated.
The transcripts of their talks at the discussion sessions were published on the
website of CAA, organized based on the visual arts organizations the speakers
represented, for example, China National Academy of Painting, and NAMOC,
among others. There were over 40 essays by different participants, who are
senior leaders from state-owned museums, art academies, visual art media and
research institutions, published on CAA’s website. The order of the essays was
based on these leaders’ seniority. The messages of the essays were highly repeti-
tive and the content was mostly similar. It was obvious that what matters in
the essays was not diversified opinions among the participants, but showing a
universal loyalty and commitment to the Party’s order.
After these study sessions, each arts and culture organization would make stra-
tegic plans and take proactive actions to meet Xi’s requirements and implement
his guidelines. When policies and plans were rolled out, the announcements
from the organizations would always start by quoting Xi’s speeches as the ideo-
logical foundation on which the policies and plans were based to articulate that
they fully grasped the essential meaning of Xi’s speeches and prove they are able
to develop policies in line with Xi Thought. This ref lects the political nature of
the organizations and the political acumen of the leaders of these arts and culture
organizations.
The following section of the chapter will examine the content of Xi’s speeches
at CFLAC over the past decade and analyze how they shaped the new policies
and plans laid out by the state-run arts and culture organizations, as well as the
corresponding strategic plans and actions taken by the state art systems to fulfill
his guidance.
Three Strategic Meetings

2014 Forum on Art and Literature
Since Xi became the General Secretary of the CCP in November 2012, he has
held three meetings with senior leaders and representatives from institutional
members of CFLAC. At these meetings, which took place in 2014, 2016 and
2021, he produced three speeches in total. His expectations of artists and writers
in China, articulated through the speeches, have been consistent. Some sentences
in early speeches reappeared in later speeches.
Under close examination, it becomes clear that Xi’s requirements and
guidelines for the arts and culture sector were comprehensively expressed in
his speech at the first meeting in 2014. The speeches in 2016 and 2021 mostly
reiterated the messages from his 2014 speech, to ensure his expectations would
be met.
The first meeting was the Literary and Art Forum held on October 15, 2014,
two years after Xi was elected General Secretary of the CCP. The format of the
meeting, “Forum” (座谈会), taken after Chairman45 Mao’s The Yan’an Forum
on Art and Literature46 in 1942, had an apparent historical reference and polit-
ical agenda. CCP News claimed, “it was the first Forum (on Art and Literature)
held by the CCP’s top leader since the reform and opening-up of the PRC (in
1978).”47 Tie Ning, Chairman of the China Writers Association at the time, later
elected Chairman of CFLAC in 2016, commented when the Forum was held
in 2014: “I cannot help but think of The Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature
72 years ago,”48 which epitomized the ideological importance of Xi’s Forum.
In fact, this was not the first time that a CCP General Secretary spoke with
CFLAC since the late 1970s. In 1979, Deng Xiaoping, the Chairman at the
time, spoke at the Fourth Congress of CFLAC, the first CFLAC Congress held
after the end of the Cultural Revolution.49 At this crucial meeting, to boost the
morale of artists and writers and to restore their confidence in the Party after
the turbulent decade, he said “The Party’s leadership over literature and art-
work is not to issue orders or to require literature and art to be subordinated
to temporary, specific and direct political tasks.” 党对文艺工作的领导，不是发

号施令，不是要求文学艺术从属于临时的、具体的、直接的政治任务.50 In 1996,
at the Sixth Congress of CFLAC, Jiang Zemin, then the General Secretary
of the CCP, stated “After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central
Committee (in 1978), our Party no longer uses the slogan that literature and art
are subordinate to politics. Eighteen years of practice have proved that this is
correct” 十一届三中全会以后，我们党已经不再使用文艺从属于政治的口号。十
八年的实践证明，这是正确的.51
These previous speeches left artists and writers with a certain degree of liberty
and creative freedom by emphasizing that arts and literature were not subject
to specific political tasks. On the contrary, Xi’s speech at the Forum in 2014
underscored the Party’s absolute leadership and supervision of the arts and cul-
ture sector. In hindsight, this statement was entirely in line with the endeavor of
incorporating Xi Thought into the Revised Constitution of the CCP in 2017 and
the “Two Establishments” in 2021. Fully grasping his speech in 2014 provides us
with the keys to deciphering future complex arts and culture policies.
In his official speech at the Forum, the topics were focused on two primary
questions:
In this new stage in the history of realizing the Chinese dream of the great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and promoting socialist core values,
how should the CCP lead the work of literature and art? And how can lit-
erature and art professionals in the country create a new type of literature
and art that meets the requirements of this current stage?
在实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦、培育和弘扬社会主义核心价值观的
新的历史阶段，应当如何领导文艺工作，怎样才能创造出适合现阶段要求
的新型文艺52
To rephrase the questions more simply as a statement: The CCP is the undisputed
orchestrator of creative production by artists and writers in China. Furthermore,
artists and writers have the undeniable responsibility of creating new works that
will help “realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese
nation and promote socialist core values.” This is, above all, their patriotic duty.
To address the two fundamental questions, Xi’s speech laid out his guidelines
for how artists and writers (associated with the 55 institutional members in
CFLAC) can fulfill the expectation of the Party:
Today, we are closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese
nation than at any time in history.... To achieve this goal, we must attach
great importance to the crucial role of literature and art and the professionals
that work in this industry.... Culture is an important force for the survival
and development of a people.... Without the prosperity of Chinese culture,
there will be no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
今天，我们比历史上任何时期都更接近中华民族伟大复兴的目标…而
实现这个目标，必须高度重视和充分发挥文艺和文艺工作者的重要作
用…文化是民族生存和发展的重要力量…没有中华文化繁荣兴盛，就没有
中华民族伟大复兴
Chinese writers and artists should…promote the Chinese spirit, gather

the strength of China, and inspire the people of all ethnic groups in the
country to vigorously move towards the future.
我国作家艺术家应该…弘扬中国精神、凝聚中国力量，鼓舞全国各族人民
朝气蓬勃迈向未来53
To accomplish this mission, Xi highlights some of the requirements necessary

for artists and writers to fulfill their political duty to the Party and the nation:
The social benefits of artworks are more important than the market
benefits
In this speech, Xi prioritizes ideological loyalty over the economic return of arts
and culture production:
A good work…should place social benefits at the forefront, and at the

same time, it should be a work that incorporates both social and economic
benefits. Under the conditions of developing a socialist market economy,
many cultural products have to realize their value through the market, so of
course, we cannot completely disregard the economic benefits. However,
when comparing social benefits with economic benefits, economic benefits
are second; when the two benefits and two values contradict each other,
economic benefits should be subordinated to social benefits; market value
should be subordinated to social values. Literature and art cannot be a slave
to the market and should not be stained with the stench of money.
一部好的作品…应该是把社会效益放在首位，同时也应该是社会效益和
经济效益相统一的作品。在发展社会主义市场经济的条件下，许多文化产
品要通过市场实现价值，当然不能完全不考虑经济效益。然而，同社会效
益相比，经济效益是第二位的，当两个效益、两种价值发生矛盾时，经济
效益要服从社会效益，市场价值要服从社会价值。文艺不能当市场的奴
隶，不要沾满了铜臭气。
Literature and art cannot be lost in the tide of the market economy, there can be
no question of who serves who, otherwise literature and art will not be viable.
文艺不能在市场经济大潮中迷失方向，不能在为什么人的问题上发生偏
差，否则文艺就没有生命力54
This statement from Xi at the Forum in 2014 has since encouraged gov-
ernment funding across the national and provincial levels to support patriotic
arts and culture production. The rationale for expanding state funding to arts
and culture, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, was to free selected
state-endorsed artists55 from the pressure of having to make a living through the
art market. Therefore, they should be more dedicated to creating artworks that
“communicate contemporary Chinese values and embody the spirit of Chinese
culture” 传播当代中国价值观念、体现中华文化精神.56
The complex dynamics between the social benefits and market benefits of
art and culture creation have been discussed in all three of Xi’s speeches. At a
deeper level, this ref lects the dilemma the Party faces: how to maintain a balance
between strengthening the ideological control of art creation and promoting the
economic value of the arts and culture sector. When the two objectives are in
conf lict, the former is always prioritized over the latter.
This guideline, though at first glance may appear straightforward, can have
complex implications. For instance, on March 12, 2022, the PRC’s Ministry
of Culture and Tourism sponsored a concert of Puccini’s opera Turandot and
an exhibition of costumes of Turandot on loan from China National Peking
Opera Company at Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.57 According to the
Ministry’s announcement, the event was part of a series of cultural activities for
the China-Italy Year of Culture and Tourism 2022.
In fact, the concert and the costumes exhibition endorsed by the Ministry
took place precisely ten days before the nine-d ay performance of the opera
Turandot58 at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in which the dissident-in-exile artist
Ai Weiwei served as the director. As Ai’s operatic debut, he also created the set
design, the costume design and the video installation of the production. Due
to the outbreak of the pandemic, the performance was postponed from 2020
to 2022, but the publicity for the opera directed by Ai was well underway in
2020. When Ai’s Turandot was inaugurated in March 2022 the Russian army had
invaded Ukraine a month earlier, causing one of the most drastic humanitarian
crises in Europe since WWII. In response to the political tragedy, Ai, who in
the past created films and installations which discussed the international refugee
crisis, “uses unrelenting video images to intensify the sense of state-sponsored
menace pervading the opera.”59 According to the description of the French news
agency AFP:
Behind a set resembling the ruins of a futuristic city, Ai projects distressing

images from recent news events, whether masked hospital workers in pro-
tective gear, refugees fording rivers, riot police confronting Hong Kong
protesters or migrants encircled by chain link fences.60
Ai’s production of Turandot, full of political charge, demonstrated the artist’s

provocative challenge to state autocracy and a deep rage against societal injustice.
The opera, more a political statement than a purely musical experience, is far
from complimentary to the PRC government. The fact that the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism sponsored their own concert of Turandot in the same city
in the same month, right ahead of Ai’s operatic debut, with Peking opera-style
costumes on loan from the state-owned Peking opera house in Beijing, and a
congratulatory letter from Xi Jinping himself, is probably not a coincidence.
Although the Ministry did not criticize Ai’s production in public, their atti-
tude of opposing it was obvious: there was no single mention of Ai’s Turandot in
the domestic Chinese press. Information on Ai’s operatic production was com-
pletely blocked in China, which is the case for nearly everything Ai has done in
recent years.
This strange juxtaposition of the two Turandots in Rome in March 2022
perfectly ref lects how the Ministry abided by Xi’s requirement: when in con-
f lict, the social benefits of an artwork should be prioritized over the market
benefits. Despite the Ministry claiming the concert was sold out, it was likely
not a market success.61 Nevertheless, the Ministry carries a vital political task of
“promoting the spirit of China” and “telling a China story well.” For the positive
brand building of the PRC government, the social benefits, the concert and the
costumes exhibition were worthwhile investments to counter negative publicity.
Xi’s personal letter to congratulate the event was a stamp of approval. The events
also reveal how far the state system will go to fulfill Xi’s ambitions.
Arts and literature must serve the people

This guideline, directly inherited from Mao’s speech at The Yan’an Forum on
Art and Literature in 1942, not only offers a purpose for artistic creation in the
state system but also emphasizes the nature of the type of content for arts and
culture production:
Socialist literature and art, in essence, are the literature and art of the
people. In order to ref lect the voice of the people, literature and art must
adhere to the fundamental direction of serving the people and socialism.
This is a basic requirement put forward by the Party on the literary front,
and it is also the key to determining the future and destiny of our country’s
literary and artistic undertakings. Only when a firmly established Marxist
view of literature and art, which is truly people-centric, can literature
and art demonstrate their maximum positive energy. A people-centric
approach requires meeting people’s spiritual and cultural needs as a starting
and ending point of literature and artwork and regarding the people as the
main subject matter of literature and artistic expression. Respect the people
as the connoisseurs and judges of literature and art aesthetics and regard
serving the people as the mission of literature and art professionals.
社会主义文艺，从本质上讲，就是人民的文艺。文艺要反映好人民心声，就
要坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务这个根本方向。这是党对文艺战线提
出的一项基本要求，也是决定我国文艺事业前途命运的关键。只有牢固树
立马克思主义文艺观，真正做到了以人民为中心，文艺才能发挥最大正能
量。以人民为中心，就是要把满足人民精神文化需求作为文艺和文艺工作
的出发点和落脚点，把人民作为文艺表现的主体，把人民作为文艺审美的
鉴赏家和评判者，把为人民服务作为文艺工作者的天职
This command for Chinese artists and writers to have a proletarian focus in
their artistic creation has two implications. First, since the CCP represents the
people, the primary goal of arts and culture must be to serve the Party. Second,
because part of the Party’s second centennial goal is “By 2050, rural areas in
China will be fully rejuvenated, and the agricultural industry will be strong,
rural areas will be beautiful, and farmers will be prosperous” 到2050年，乡村全
面振兴，农业强、农村美、农民富全面实现, artists and art institutions have the
responsibility of “empowering rural revitalization” 赋能乡村振兴 through cre-
ative production and through bringing arts and culture programs to rural areas.62
In March 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of
Education, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Affairs, the National Rural Revitalization Administration and the
China Development Bank jointly issued a “Guideline on Promoting the Culture
Industry to Empower Rural Revitalization” 关于推动文化产业赋能乡村振兴的
意见.63 Following Xi Jinping Thought and Xi’s vision, the guideline listed a
number of key areas for visual and performing arts institutions to collaborate
with and provide training to the rural areas and boost the development of the arts
and culture industry in rural China. Art academies are encouraged by the guide-
line to establish artistic training bases in rural areas, to nurture more painters and
sculptors from rural areas, and to incorporate more artistic elements in the urban
planning and construction of rural areas.64
The joint governmental guidelines (from above) were issued two weeks after
Fan Di’an, President of CAFA and Chairman of CAA, made his proposal of
“Strengthening art to empower rural revitalization” 加强艺术赋能乡村振兴65
at the National People’s Congress in Beijing. At the time he suggested that the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
and the Ministry of Education collaborate on the endeavor and fully utilize the
art and design resources at art academies in China to “help local governments
with planning and the creation of ‘rural beauty’ in rural revitalization” 助力各
地政府在乡村振兴中充分重视“农村美”的规划建设.66 Since the announcement,
several top art academies in China have been actively rolling out art and training
programs in rural China.67
Party leadership and patriotism

Among the core socialist values, the deepest, most fundamental and most
eternal is patriotism.... Our contemporary literature and art should take
patriotism as the main theme of literary creation, guide people to establish

and adhere to the correct view of history, nation, country and culture, and
enhance the backbone and strength of being Chinese.
在社会主义核心价值观中，最深层、最根本、最永恒的是爱国主义...我们
当代文艺更要把爱国主义作为文艺创作的主旋律，引导人民树立和坚持正
确的历史观、民族观、国家观、文化观，增强做中国人的骨气和底气68
For artists to fulfill these guidelines, Xi instructed:
Party leadership is the fundamental guarantee for the development of socialist

literature and art…Party committees at all levels should (oversee the cultural
work) from the strategic perspective of building a socialist cultural power,
(they should) enhance (Chinese) cultural awareness and cultural confidence.
(They should) prioritize the work of literature and art into their agenda,
implement the Party’s guidelines and policies on literature and art, and grasp
the correct direction of the development of literature and art.
党的领导是社会主义文艺发展的根本保证…各级党委要从建设社会主义
文化强国的高度，增强文化自觉和文化自信，把文艺工作纳入重要议事日
程，贯彻好党的文艺方针政策，把握文艺发展正确方向69
Such commitment to the national identity and patriotic duty also means that
artists and writers should consciously prevent the inf luence of Western culture
from penetrating into their artistic creations.
If literature and art professionals “respect Western works,” “see Western

works as beautiful,” “follow Western works” as their standard, believe that
winning awards abroad is the highest pursuit, and follow in the footsteps
(of Westerners) and do what they do…then these (professionals) won’t have
a future!
如果“以洋为尊”、“以洋为美”、“唯洋是从”，把作品在国外获奖作为最高
追求, 跟在别人后面亦步亦趋、东施效颦…绝对是没有前途的！70
This statement is particularly worth noting because most living visual artists
whose work has achieved high values in the international art market have
accomplished strong recognition in Western countries and Western systems. By
commenting that following the aesthetics standards of Western countries “won’t
have a future,” Xi reiterated the importance of Chinese artists’ patriotic duty and
their loyalty to the Party. As he instructed, such a mentality should be carried
throughout the artist’s creation. Otherwise, their career in the country will have
no future.
Training and promotion of a leadership team with political loyalty

CCP committees at all levels should select and strengthen the leadership team
of literary and art units, put those cadres who have both political integrity and
talent, and can work with literary and art professionals, into leading positions
in literary and art institutions.... It is necessary to construct literary and artistic
teams and place them in more prominent and important positions, strive to
cultivate a group of influential literary and artistic leaders across the fields of
literature and art, and build a large team of literary and artistic talent.
各级党委要选好配强文艺单位领导班子，把那些德才兼备、能同文艺工作
者打成一片的干部放到文艺工作领导岗位上来…要把文艺队伍建设摆在
更加突出的重要位置，努力造就一批有影响的各领域文艺领军人物，建设
一支宏大的文艺人才队伍。
We must pay great attention to the formation and management of literary

and artistic positions, adhere to the responsibility of defending this ter-
ritory, and never provide channels for the dissemination of harmful lit-
erary and artistic works. Propaganda and cultural departments at all levels
should, under the leadership of the Party committee, effectively strengthen
the guidance and support for literature and art, strengthen the guidance and
unity of literature and art professionals, and make positive contributions to
promote the prosperity and development of literature and art. The CFLAC
and the Writers Association should give full play to their advantages,
strengthen industry services, industry management, and industry self-
discipline, and truly become the home of literary and art professionals.
要重视文艺阵地建设和管理，坚持守土有责，绝不给有害的文艺作品提
供传播渠道。各级宣传文化部门要在党委领导下，切实加强对文艺工作的
指导和扶持，加强对文艺工作者的引导和团结，为推动文艺繁荣发展作出
积极贡献。文联、作协要充分发挥优势，加强行业服务、行业管理、行业自
律，真正成为文艺工作者之家。71
This part of Xi’s speech emphasized the undisputable supervision by the

Party’s propaganda department (Ministry of Propaganda) over arts and culture
development in the country. Furthermore, the loyalty of the artists and writers to
the Party and the nation, which is to be evaluated by the propaganda department,
is a critical criterion for the career advancement of artists in the state system.
In September 2020 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of
Human Resources and Social Security jointly released a Guidance on Deepening
the Reform of the Professional Job Title System for Art Professionals 关于深化职称制度
改革的意见.72 The document’s guiding principle is:
to adhere to the Party’s management of talent…ensure that the majority of

art professionals are closely united around the Party Central Committee,
provide talented artists to support the prosperity and development of

socialist culture and art, and uphold and develop advanced socialist culture
with Chinese characteristics.
坚持党管人才…将广大艺术专业人员紧密团结在党中央周围，为繁荣发展
社会主义文化艺术事业、坚持和发展中国特色社会主义先进文化提供人
才支撑73
The criteria for an artist’s career advancement, announced in the Guidance,

prioritized an artist’s commitment to “vigorously promoting the core values
of socialism and developing an advanced culture of socialism with Chinese
characteristics for the new era” 大力弘扬社会主义核心价值观，发展新时代
中国特色社会主义先进文化. In order to have a durable career path artists are
expected to “firmly establish the Marxist concept of literature and art, adhere to
a people-centric creative orientation, insist on serving the people, and serving
socialism” 牢固树立马克思主义文艺观，坚持以人民为中心的创作导向，坚持为
人民服务、为社会主义服务. This Guidance has been broadly quoted by state-
run art institutions as the foundation for the evaluation of staff performance.74
The system of art criticism

We must attach great importance to and effectively strengthen the work of
literary and art criticism. Criticism is a mirror and provides a healthy dose
of medicine for literary and artistic creation.... Literature and art need criti-
cism, criticism cannot be all praise and empty f lattery, nor can we apply
Western theories that transform Chinese aesthetics, let alone replace art-
istic standards with basic commercial standards that equate literature and
art to an ordinary commodity.
要高度重视和切实加强文艺评论工作。文艺批评是文艺创作的一面镜子、
一剂良药…文艺批评要的就是批评，不能都是表扬甚至庸俗吹捧、阿谀
奉承，不能套用西方理论来剪裁中国人的审美，更不能用简单的商业标准
取代艺术标准，把文艺作品完全等同于普通商品
Through deepening reforms, improving policies, and enhancing systems,

this will enable the continuous formation of high-quality works and produce
talent.
要通过深化改革、完善政策、健全体制，形成不断出精品、出人才的生动
局面75
This Guideline has had a profound impact on the practice of art criticism
in China, pushing a more nationalistic approach to art criticism with a focus
on Chinese aesthetics. A deviation from the aesthetics of Western countries
is highly encouraged. Since the release of the new guidelines, the state has
established a number of Chinese Literature and Art Critic Bases 中国文艺评

论基地,76 authorized by CFLAC, to create an “art and culture criticism system
with Chinese characteristics” 中国特色评论话语体系.77 This systematic super-
vision has been directly initiated by the Ministry of Propaganda, the Ministry
of Culture and Tourism, the National Radio and Television Administration,
CFLAC and the Chinese Writers Association, who jointly issued a Guiding
Opinion on Strengthening the Work of Literary and Art Criticism for the New Era 关于
加强新时代文艺评论工作的指导意见78 in August 2021. The document offered
specific instructions on how to enhance art and literature criticism via:
a concrete implementation of the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s

important remarks on literature and art criticism, which requires a powerful
initiative to promote the prosperity and development of literature and art and
the construction of socialist cultural power, and will strengthen literature
and art criticism for the new era and develop new guidelines for the literature
and art criticism industry.
是对习近平总书记关于文艺工作重要论述特别是关于文艺评论工作重要
指示批示精神的具体落实，是推进文艺繁荣发展、促进文化强国建设的
有力举措，是加强新时代文艺评论工作、发展文艺评论事业的基本遵循79
The Guiding Opinion underscored the Party’s80 ideological framework to

strengthen literary and art criticism in the state system. Specifically, under the
leadership of Xi Jinping Thought:
to build an art and culture criticism system with Chinese characteristics,

through inheriting and innovating on the excellent heritage of ancient
Chinese literary and art criticism theory, critically drawing from modern
Western literary and art theory, and building an academic system and litera-
ture and art criticism system with Chinese characteristics without applying
Western theories.
构建中国特色评论话语，继承创新中国古代文艺批评理论优秀遗产，批判
借鉴现代西方文艺理论，建设具有中国特色的文艺理论与评论学科体系、
学术体系和话语体系，不套用西方理论剪裁中国人的审美81
More changes are expected to take place in this field. For example, in June
2022, the Young Art Critic Training Program funded by CNAF was launched at
CAFA in Beijing.82 As commented by Xia Chao, Chairman of China Literature
and Art Critics Association (CLACA) at the opening ceremony, art criticism needs
to follow Xi’s guidelines, and make sure that “to build a literary and art criticism
system with Chinese characteristics, and to do a good job of literary commentary
for the new era, we must cultivate theoretical roots and not apply Western aes-
thetic theory” 建设具有中国特色的文艺理论评论体系，还是做好新时代文艺评
论工作，都必须厚植理论根基，不能套用西方审美理论剪裁中国人的审美.83
Two Speeches Following the 10th Congress of CFLAC in 2016 and

the 11th Congress of CFLAC in 2021
Xi’s speech at the 10th Congress of CFLAC in November 2016 and his speech at
the 11th Congress of CFLAC in December 2021 mostly reiterated the guidelines
delivered during his speech at The Forum on Literary and Art in 2014. To a
certain degree, it could be perceived as a continuous reminder of the ideological
framework he laid out in 2014. He emphasized again his expectation from artists
and writers in China: “I hope everyone can strengthen their cultural confidence
and use art and literature to inspire the national spirit” 希望大家坚定文化自
信，用文艺振奋民族精神.84 He also reinforced his expectation of the patriotic
themes from artists’ creative productions, “to create rich and diverse Chinese
stories, Chinese images, Chinese melodies” 创造出丰富多样的中国故事、中国
形象、中国旋律,85 “I hope that the literary and art professionals will deeply care
about the great cause of national rejuvenation and enthusiastically depict the
magnificent new era and new journey” 希望广大文艺工作者心系民族复兴伟
业，热忱描绘新时代新征程的恢宏气象.86
Meanwhile, artists and writers should:
always put social benefit first and seriously consider the social impact of their
works. They must cherish their image in society, be able to endure loneli-
ness and stabilize their mind in the face of the tide of the market economy,
not be shaken by momentary gains, not be impatient for momentary fame,
and not be a slave of the market.
始终把社会效益放在首位，严肃认真考虑作品的社会效果。要珍惜自己的
社会形象，在市场经济大潮面前耐得住寂寞、稳得住心神，不为一时之利
而动摇、不为一时之誉而急躁，不当市场的奴隶87
It is critical that artists and writers “consciously resist worshipping money,

hedonism, and extreme individualism” 自觉抵制拜金主义、享乐主义、极端
个人主义.88
Above all, to “strengthen the CCP’s leadership over literature and art is the
fundamental guarantee for the prosperity and development of the literature and
arts industry in China” 加强和改进党对文艺工作的领导，是文艺事业繁荣发展
的根本保证. Therefore:
CFLAC and the Writers Association need to strengthen the Party leadership
building within organizations, strengthen the Party building of the literary
and art units and put cadres who have political savviness, competence, and
willingness to serve (the Party) in the leading positions of literary and arts
organizations.
加强文联、作协党的建设，加强文艺单位党的建设，选好配强文艺单位领
导班子，把讲政治、懂业务、能干事、愿服务的干部放到文艺工作领导岗
位上来.89
It is imperative for the state to
enhance its support for arts and literature production, to continuously

expand the supply of high- quality literary and artistic works, and to
strengthen the construction of Marxism-oriented literature and art theory
and criticism.
要加大文艺创作扶持力度，不断扩大高质量文艺作品供给。要加强马克思
主义文艺理论和评论建设90
Xi’s requirements for the arts and culture sector in China over the past decade
have not only been thoroughly studied by officials and artists in the state system,
but also implemented as the criteria to evaluate their performance and grant
career promotions. For instance, on March 9, 2022, the Director of NAMOC,
Wu Weishan, who is also a sculptor and a member of the CPPCC, received the
Annual Excellent Performance Award of CPPCC in 2021. He was the only rep-
resentative from the arts and culture sector to win the award that year.91 At the
awards ceremony, the rationale for honoring him was read out loud:
(Wu Weishan) has been dedicated to the work of the CPPCC and to art.
He was commissioned to create a large-scale sculpture “Flag,”92 which
demonstrated the spirit of the CCP.... He guided the public and helped
them appreciate the power of faith; He used beauty as a medium to help
the world understand the great beauty of China.
政协工作的有心人，美术工作的有心人。创作巨型主题雕塑《旗帜》建党
精神旌旗猎猎…引导群众领略信仰伟力；以美为媒，让世界读懂大美中
国.93
The highlight of Wu Weishan’s achievement in 2021 was the creation of the

sculpture Flag. The artwork, which appears almost exactly like a CCP f lag
in three dimensions but is 7.1 meters tall and 21 meters long, refers to the
date when the CCP was founded, July 1, 1921.94 It was one of five large-
scale commissioned sculptures completed in 2021 in celebration of the 100th
anniversary of the Party’s founding. All five outdoor sculptures are on per-
manent display in front of the CCP History Museum,95 a state-owned museum
dedicated to educating the public about the history of the Party and is under
the direct supervision of the Ministry of Propaganda. The Museum and the
outdoor sculptures opened to public viewing in July 2021 (the anniversary of
the founding of the Party).
Once employees in the state art system excel at applying the Party’s ideological
guidelines and Xi Jinping Thought as part of their professional duties, their loy-
alty will be recognized, and a promotion will be granted. For instance, in March
2022, Professor and Party Secretary of the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua
University, Ma Sai, received the “National Young and Middle-aged Virtuous

and Talented Artists” 全国中青年德艺双馨文艺工作者96 award by the Ministry
of Propaganda, the Ministry of Human Resources and CFLAC, the most pres-
tigious art award given to artists in the state system. The award was created in
2004, the selection criteria considered to be highly stringent, and the three state
institutions only give out the awards every four or five years.97 The press release
that announced Ma Sai’s award highlighted his accomplishment in leading the
design projects for national events including the celebration of the 50th, 60th,
and 70th anniversaries of the PRC, as well as an important sculpture at the sta-
dium of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.98 In June 2022, the Tsinghua
University’s Party Committee decided to promote Ma Sai to the President of the
Academy of Arts and Design, while retaining his title of the Party Secretary of
the Academy,99 a rare honor among the top art academies in China.100
In a feature story by Tsinghua University in June 2022 on Ma Sai’s effort
overseeing the design projects for major national events, he ref lected:
It is the noble mission of an art designer to serve the country, pay homage
to the times and design for the country. And it is the unshirkable responsi-
bility and obligation of a Communist Party member, as well as the red gene
in the blood of the people of the Academy.
服务国家、讴歌时代、为国造型，是艺术设计师的崇高使命，是一名共产
党员不可推卸的责任与义务，也是美院人血液中的红色基因101
Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Mao’s Speech at The

Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art and a New Initiative to
Separate Chinese and Western History
At the end of May 2022, the state arts and culture system started a nation-
wide campaign in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Mao’s speech on arts
and culture in 1942. Numerous conferences and mandatory study sessions
were held, and countless articles were written by artists and critics in the state
system, reinforcing the high relevance of Mao’s speech to China today. More
importantly, a number of op-eds written by state museum directors and editors
of state-r un art magazines stated that Xi’s speech on arts and literature in 2012,
delivered in the same year when he was elected General Party Secretary of the
CCP, holds the same historical significance as Mao’s speech. The two speeches,
70 years apart, echo each other and provide the most crucial guidelines for the
arts and culture development in China.
The national celebration of the 80th anniversary of Mao’s speech was by no
means an ordinary event. In fact, it signaled a milestone in the development
of arts and culture under Xi’s supervision. For one, it is the first time that a
General Secretary’s theories on arts and culture were acknowledged as sharing
the same status as those of Chairman Mao, the founding figure of the PRC.
Some op-eds even commented that Xi’s theories on arts and culture are more
important than those of Mao’s, because Mao’s were more suitable for the country
during the wartime period. Second, the celebration was held months before Xi
was confirmed as the General Secretary at the 20th Party Congress for a third
term. He will be the General Secretary with the longest tenure in this leader-
ship position since Chairman Mao. This celebration, which took place at this
historical juncture, illustrates that Xi’s policies on arts and culture matter signifi-
cantly. It also provides further proof that the ideological controls over arts and
culture in China have escalated to a new level. It was not an event to be taken
lightly. Entirely aware of the implications on their future career prospects, state
art museum directors, presidents of art academies and editors of art publications
fully embraced the occasion to demonstrate their loyalty to the Party and to Xi.
Below are a few excerpts from some of the speeches and op-eds by the most
prominent leaders of the state art institutions in celebration of the 80th anniver-
sary of Mao’s speech.
Wu Weishan, Director of the National Art Museum of China, Deputy
Chairman of CAA wrote in an op-ed published in China Art News May 2022:
This year (2022) marks the 80th anniversary of the publication of Comrade
Mao Zedong’s “Speech at The Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art.” As a
classic document of the party’s leadership in literature and art, it clarifies
the direction in which literature and art are to serve the people, combining
the basic principles of Marxism with the reality of China’s situation. It cre-
atively explains a series of major issues including literature and art and the
people, literature and life, literature and the times, and historic heritage and
innovation.
On October 15, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over The
Forum on Literature and Art in Beijing and delivered an important speech.
It stated the status and role of literature and art, pointing out that literature
and art professionals should have a high understanding of the status, role and
important mission of literature and art, understand their historical mission
and responsibilities, and adhere to a people-centric orientation. They must
strive to create more excellent works worthy of the times, to carry forward
the Chinese spirit, to unite the strength of China, and to inspire the people of
all ethnic groups in the country to move into the future vigorously. General
Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech is a guiding beacon of Marxist literary theory
in China’s new era.
The two speeches not only shine with the brilliance of theory but also
play a profound guiding role in specific literary and artistic creations,
ref lecting their powerful practical power.... The spirit of Comrade Mao
Zedong’s “Speech at The Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” and
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “Speech at The Forum on Literature and
Art” will continue to guide us to set out again and take another step
forward.
今年是毛泽东同志《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》发表80周年，作为党领
导文艺事业的经典文献，它明确了文艺为人民大众服务的方向，将马克思
主义基本原理与中国具体实际相结合，创造性地阐释了文艺与人民、文艺
与生活、文艺与时代、继承与创新等一系列重大问题。
2014年10月15日，习近平总书记在北京主持召开文艺工作座谈会并发表
重要讲话，深刻阐述了文艺和文艺工作的地位和作用，以及重大使命，指
出文艺工作者要高度认识文艺的地位和作用，认识自己所担负的历史使命
和责任，坚持以人民为中心的工作导向，努力创作更多无愧于时代的优秀
作品，弘扬中国精神、凝聚中国力量，鼓舞全国各族人民朝气蓬勃迈向未
来。习近平总书记的讲话，是新时代马克思主义文艺理论的纲领性文献。
两篇讲话不仅闪耀着理论的光辉，更对具体的文艺创作发挥着深刻的
指引作用，体现出强大的实践伟力…毛泽东同志《在延安文艺座谈会上的
讲话》和习近平总书记《在文艺工作座谈会上的讲话》的精神指引我们再
出发，再迈进！102
Xu Jiang, Deputy Chairman of CFLAC and former President of China Art

Academy, gave a speech at the celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Mao’s 1942
Yan’an Speech, held at China Art Academy:
Eighty years ago, Chairman Mao’s speech answered the two fundamental
questions of “who to serve and how to serve.” It illuminated the minds of
generations of art professionals and increased the cultural confidence and
improved the values of the Chinese people. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s
speech at The Forum on Literature and Art eight years ago is from the same
lineage as the speech by Mao. Its key philosophy is that literature and art
should serve the people. The two speeches combined form the ideological
core of Chinese literature and art theory. They are the guiding force for lit-
erature and art development in China. They have a significant impact on
today’s artistic creation. They stimulated the continuous and profound turn
of Chinese artistic creation towards a confident local and national identity.
80年前毛主席集中回答了 “为什么人服务，如何服务”这两个根本的、原
则的问题。照耀着几代艺术工作者的心胸，照耀着渐渐成长起来的中国
人的文化自信和价值观念。8年前习近平总书记在文艺工作座谈会上的讲
话，和延安文艺座谈会讲话一脉相承，其核心是文艺的人民思想，它们共
同铸就了中国文艺理论的思想核心，共同形成了文艺的指导性力量，对今
天的艺术创作产生重大影响，促成了中国艺术创作持续地向着本土性、民
族性的自强自信标准的深刻转向。103
The Project to Explore the Source of Chinese Civilization

On May 27, 2022, immediately after the state system’s national celebrations of the
80th anniversary of Mao’s speech, Xi hosted the 39th study session of the Politburo
of the Party’s Central Committee and expounded upon the significance of the
Project to Explore the Source of Chinese Civilization 中华文明探源工程.104 The

Project, initiated in 2002 by the Ministry of Science and Technology,105 aimed
to prove the source of Chinese civilization through archaeological excavation
and research. As Xi announced at the study session, after over two decades of
research, the Project has accomplished major results to confirm China’s “million
years of human history, 10,000 years of cultural history and 5,000 years of
civilization history” 我国百万年的人类史、一万年的文化史、五千多年的文明
史.106
The spirit of Xi’s important speech 重要讲话精神 at the Politburo was sub-
sequently required to be “studied and implemented” 学习贯彻落实 within the
state’s arts and culture system in an official order107 in June. In July 2022, Xi’s
speech at the Politburo on the Project was published again in the top state press.
As reinforced in his speech:
For a long time, the West has formed a set of civilization theories,
which we should learn from, but not copy. The Project to Explore the
Source of Chinese Civilization has made an original contribution to the
study of the origin of world civilization by proposing a (Chinese) def-
inition of civilization and offering a Chinese approach to recognizing
a civilized society.
长期以来，西方形成了一套文明理论，我们要加以借鉴，但不能照抄照搬。
中华文明探源工程提出文明定义和认定进入文明社会的中国方案，为世
界文明起源研究作出了原创性贡献
Many people in the West are accustomed to seeing China as a modern

nation-state in the vision of Western modernization theory. Without
looking at China from the perspective of a civilization with a history of
more than 5,000 years, it is difficult to truly understand China’s past, pre-
sent, and future.... It is necessary to establish a system of civilization with
research disciplines in an academic system, and a discourse system with
Chinese characteristics and Chinese style to provide strong theoretical
support for the practice of new forms of human civilization.
西方很多人习惯于把中国看作西方现代化理论视野中的近现代民族国家，
没有从五千多年文明史的角度来看中国，这样就难以真正理解中国的过
去、现在、未来…要建立中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的文明研究学科
体系、学术体系、话语体系，为人类文明新形态实践提供有力理论支撑108
Undoubtedly the Project, which involves archeological excavations and

research as well as history, humanities and natural science studies,109 is one of
the Party’s most pivotal arts and cultural undertakings. It is yet to be seen how
the Central Government will activate an expanded roadmap for arts and cultural
policies based on this endeavor. Meanwhile, a few key messages emphasized by
Xi through his speech are clear: first, Western countries tend to misinterpret
China because they do not understand China’s long history and heritage. The
purpose of the Project is precisely to reinforce this. Second, instead of emulating
Western civilization theories, China has developed its own definition and the-
ories of civilization. Third, China’s theories of civilization will help provide vital
theoretical support for the development of the entire human civilization.
Said another way, the Project to Explore the Source of Chinese Civilization
carries a significant political task. Through this Project, China will deviate from
the Western ideological framework of civilization. Instead, it will strengthen its
own concept and theories on civilization, which it believes will contribute to the
practice of new forms of civilization for all of human society.
Notes
1 www.qstheory.cn/qshy jx/2022–07/13/c _1128827462.htm.
2 www.gov.cn/x inwen/2021–12/14/content_ 5660780.htm.
3 www.chinadai ly.com.cn/a/201902/18/WS5c6a28d7a3106c65c34e9de8.html.
4 https://news.cctv.com/t iantia nxuexi/znhyk/shier y ue/i ndex.shtml.
5 Literature and art & arts and culture are sometimes used interchangeably.
9 www.gov.cn/x inwen/2021–11/16/content_ 5651271.htm.
14 www.sc.gov.cn/10462/10778/14586/14587/2 021/12/15/73f29d 0dc4 0947 71a7856
7bd821b6090.shtml.
16 www.cf lac.org.cn/x w/202112/t 20211214_ 576164.html.
17 http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1214/c1024–32308057.html.
19 http:// n ews.cctv.com/ 2 016/ 11/ 3 0/A RT I Xb5 U VFF d lOy J DAq C dsC Z161130.
shtml?t=1486876375403.
20 www.cf lac.org.cn/zgwl/wljj/201111/t 20111103 _16521.html.
21 www.qstheory.cn/x jpzth/i ndex.htm.
22 http://d angjian.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0707/c117092–32468304.html.
23 www.marxists.org/chinese/m aozedong/m arx ist.org-chinese-m ao-194205.htm.
24 www.marxi s ts.org/r efere n ce/a rch i ve/m ao/s elec t ed- works/ vol u me- 3/m swv3 _
08.htm.
08.htm.
26 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/z sdw/whbysfzzx/202204/t 20220415_932485.html.
27 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/z sdw/whbysfzzx/202204/t 20220415_932485.html.
28 www.bjnews.com.cn/deta il/155149942814677.html.
29 http://a rts.cntv.cn/20131118/104076.shtml.
30 http://cultu re.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0928/c1013–30318375.html.
31 http://a rts.cntv.cn/20131118/104076.shtml.
32 www.zgysy jy.org.cn/new_deta il/8079.html.
08.htm.
34 This part of history was depicted in Part I of the book.
35 www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xw f b/moe_176/2020 09/t 20200923_489988.html.
36 http://cpc.people.com.cn/n /2012/1118/c64094–19612151–3.html.
37 www.cac.gov.cn/2017–10/24/c _1121849056.htm.
38 www.lawin foch i na.com/d isplay.aspx?id=24114&lib=law.
40 https://j jjcb.ccdi.gov.cn/epaper/i ndex.html?guid=1460331149468368897.
41 www.gov.cn/zhengce/2022– 03/21/content_ 5680294.htm.
4 4 The association under the leadership of CFLAC that oversees the state-r un visual art
infrastructure.
45 Since the 1980s, the General Secretary is considered the leader of China: the Chairman
was phased out (different from Chairman of the Central Military Commission).
46 www.press.umich.edu//19066.
47 http://cpc.people.com.cn/n /2014/1016/c164113–25849769.html.
49 www.cf lac.org.cn/wdh/cf lac_wdh-4th_ A rticle-01.html.
53 www.xinhuanet.com//politics/2015–10/14/c _1116825558.htm.
55 The artists who have demonstrated their loyalty to the Party via their creative
production.
57 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/bnsj/dwwhl lj/202204/t 20220408_932350.html.
58 www.operaroma.it/en/shows/t urandot/.
59 www.france24.com/e n/l ive-news/2 0220322-a i-weiwei-m akes-o perat ic-d ebut-
with-t urandot-i n-rome.
60 www.france24.com/e n/l ive-news/2 0220322-a i-weiwei-m akes-o perat ic-d ebut-
with-t urandot-i n-rome.
61 Images of the event that were posted showed the seats in the venue nearly empty.
63 http://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/c yfz/202204/t 20220406_932314.html.
64 www.mct.gov.cn/v ipchat/home/site/1/375/.
65 http://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0306/c1012–32367615.html.
66 http://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0306/c1012–32367615.html.
67 www.ad.tsinghua.edu.cn/i nfo/1061/28136.htm.
72 www.moh r ss.gov.cn/S Yrlz y hshb zb/r enca i rens hi/z cwj/2 020 09/t 2020 0 928 _ 391
837.html.
73 www.moh r ss.gov.cn/S Yrlz yhshb zb/r enca i ren s hi/z cwj/2 02 0 09/t 2020 0 928 _ 391
837.html.
76 www.cf lac.org.cn/zgwl/wlgg/202203/t 20220303_584861.html.
77 www.sohu.com/a/488875968 _121124794.
78 www.gov.cn/x inwen/2021– 08/02/content_ 5629062.htm.
79 https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_14139402.
80 The Ministry of Propaganda is directly supervised by the Central Committee of
the CCP.
84 http://n ews.cctv.com/ 2 016/ 11/ 3 0/A RT I Xb5 U VFF d lOy J DAq C dsC Z161130.
shtml?t=1480820894701.
shtml?t=1480820894701.
shtml?t=1480820894701.
shtml?t=1480820894701.
90 http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1214/c1024–32308057.html
91 There were only 20 representatives among CPPCC who won the award, and it was
a prestigious honor (https://sd.china.com/2022sd lh/l hyw/20002331/20220309/
25569668_ a ll.html).
92 The artwork captured the f lag of the CCP in a static position. (https://baijiahao.
baidu.com/s?id=1703185839233113121&wfr=spider&for=pc).
95 https://zj.zjol.com.cn/news/1686922.html.
96 www.tsinghua.org.cn/i nfo/1014/36902.htm.
97 Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the award was delayed and in 2022 given out
for the fifth time. https://w ik i66.com/全国中青年德艺双馨文艺工作者.
100 For the other top five art academies in China, the roles of President and Party
Secretary are taken by two different people.
103 www.caa.edu.cn/g mrx/2022/5y/202205/50471.html.
104 www.qstheory.cn/dukan/qs/2022–07/15/c _1128830256.htm.
107 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/202206/t 20220602 _933335.htm.
6
THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE STATE
ART SYSTEM AND THE PARTY’S
STRATEGIC PLAN
Yuan Yunsheng’s Retrospective

In early July 2022, an unexpected controversy startled the art world in China.
Three important paintings by one of the most prestigious painters in the state
system, Yuan Yunsheng, did not pass the censorship review by the officials from
the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, resulting in the works
being pulled out from Yuan’s retrospective at the leading private museum in
Shanghai, Long Museum West Bund, just prior to the opening of the exhibition.
Yuan had just turned 85 years old in April 2022. A renowned professor at
CAFA in Beijing, which he joined in 1996, he is “the director of the Chinese
Ancient Modeling Research Center of CAFA and the principal of the major
national project ‘Replication of Traditional Chinese Sculptures and Establishment
of Contemporary Chinese Art Education System,’ ”1 both inf luential roles in
the state art system. This retrospective, called Journey of Yuan Yunsheng, was by
far the most comprehensive survey of his creation covering over 200 selected
artworks produced over seven decades.2 Days before the exhibition opened to the
public, all of his paintings were mounted at Long Museum and inspected by the
officials from the culture bureau in Shanghai for the last time. Even though all
the artworks hanging in the museum had already passed previous rounds of cen-
sorship review, three paintings failed to receive approval during the last round
of review.
Among the three paintings, one of the works was a small canvas portrait of a
human figure with their arms opened widely. It was deemed to be mimicking the
image of Jesus suffering on the cross. According to the censorship guidelines, any
hint of Western religious subject matter is not allowed to be exhibited in public.3
The two other large-scale canvases were rejected due to their depiction of nudity.
One of the paintings, 20 meters long and 3 meters tall, was commissioned for
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-8
The State Art System and the Party’s Strategic Plan 137
Daxing International Airport in Beijing, the largest international airport in the

world, which opened in 2019.4 It was part of a series of artworks commissioned
by the Beijing municipal government from the professors of CAFA, considered a
highly honorable political task for a few specially selected faculty at the Academy.
To those in the art world in China, Long Museum’s plan of holding a retro-
spective for one of the most reputable painters in the state system was widely
perceived as a safe bet. And yet, three significant artworks in the exhibition were
still rejected by the culture bureau in Shanghai. More surprisingly, one of them
was created based on a commission by the Beijing government. Many artists who
have known Yuan for decades were appalled by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau
of Culture and Tourism’s decision.
In a letter addressed to the officials of the culture bureau in Shanghai, which
subsequently circulated among artists on the social media platform WeChat,
Qin Daihua, Yuan’s wife, who herself is an Associate Professor at Tsinghua
University’s Academy of Arts & Design,5 wrote:
Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism:

My husband, Yuan Yunsheng, was about to have a grand opening at the
Long Museum in Shanghai on July 5, after his 85th birthday. But several
comrades from the Culture and Tourism Bureau, during their inspection
of the exhibition, raised doubts about three paintings and requested for
them to be withdrawn (from the exhibition)....
In 1979 Yuan Yansheng created the mural Water Splashing Festival—
Hymn of Life at Beijing International Airport, which caused public con-
troversy because of the images of bathing nudes in the mural. That
incident was broadly discussed in the international community. Years
later, after (China’s) reform and opening-up policy, this mural was gener-
ally considered the beginning of the reform and opening-up period of the
country and a symbol of emancipation of the mind.
Today, the cultural environment (in China) has been significantly
improved due to our cultural confidence in a more open society, and we
cannot turnback. History is a lesson to be learned. Do we really want to
return to a period similar to the 1979 nude incident?
Long Museum is a famous museum in Shanghai. It is internation-
ally renowned for its openness and unique artistic vision. The artist and
his family fully respect and trust the museum’s research and selection of
artworks that ref lect the artist’s lifetime of creation.
Yuan Yansheng is a senior professor at the Central Academy of Fine
Arts and a heavyweight in the contemporary art world. I hope that the
Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism will handle the situ-
ation correctly.6
Only five years prior, in 2017, NAMOC in Beijing held a retrospective for
Yuan, who donated 16 of his artworks to the state-r un museum. The opening
of the exhibition was well attended by senior officials and artists from the state
system, including Zuo Zhongyi, Member of the Party Committee, Secretary of
the Secretariat and Vice Chairman of CFLAC, Fan Di’an, Chairman of CAA
and President of CAFA, and Wu Weishan, Director of NAMOC and Deputy
Chairman of CAA. Fan Di’an said in his speech at the opening ceremony:
I believe that viewing Mr. Yuan’s exhibition together and discussing the
direction of Chinese art and Chinese art education demonstrates the
exhibition’s academic significance. Mr. Yuan’s exhibition is an important
contribution to Chinese art and art education development.7
The fact that one of the most revered painters at China’s most prominent art
academy received contrasting treatment just five years apart reveals the com-
plexity of the bureaucracy within the state art system. It is far from a monolithic
institution. Rather, the complicated layers of the infrastructure and censorship
environment vary from time to time, making it challenging to navigate even for
the most experienced veterans. This chapter, by analyzing the structure and the
latest policies of the state art system, will help explain how various organizations
in the system operate and how the Party strategically plans arts and culture devel-
opment to drive its vision for the “Great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Two Parallel Governing Bodies and the Art Academies

The state systems that supervise the visual art sector include two parallel
governing bodies: the Ministry of Culture and Tourism8 and CAA, an institu-
tional member of CFLAC. The two governing bodies have distinctive scopes of
responsibility, but their leadership teams overlap in certain areas. For example,
Wu Weishan, Director of NAMOC, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism, is also the Deputy Chairman of CAA and attends all the top-level
meetings of CFLAC.
In addition to the two governing bodies, art academies, under the super-
vision of the Ministry of Education, play a pivotal role in training artists and
taking on government- commissioned art and design projects. Some of the
projects like “Nationally Commissioned Major Art Projects” 国家委托重大
艺术项目 celebrate the key milestones of the PRC and the CCP and are dir-
ectly commissioned through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. For instance,
in July 2017 the Ministry launched “The CCP and the Great Rejuvenation
of the Chinese Nation— National Major Visual Art Creation Projects”
中国共产党与中华民族伟大复兴—国家重大题材美术创作工程,9 for the first
time under Xi. It announced a list of patriotic themes based on the centennial
history of the CCP. Artists from leading art academies, CAFA, China Academy
of Art, the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Art, as well as the China
National Academy of Painting, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism, were encouraged to submit their creative plans based on the themes.
Once plans were selected and approved by the Ministry, artists were contracted
with the National Major Visual Art Creation Projects Committee to produce a
total of one hundred artworks across the academies, to be exhibited in 2019 to
celebrate the 70th anniversary of the PRC and in 2021 to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the CCP.10 The entire process of creative production was closely
supervised by the Ministry with multiple stages of reviews before granting the
final approval. Some of the commissioned artworks were subsequently collected
by state museums after the exhibitions.
A crucial fact that is often overlooked by Western art critics and observers is
that under the leadership of the CCP, in particular Xi, the two governing bodies
and the top art academies frequently coordinate their activities to fulfill the
political tasks required by the Ministry of Propaganda under the CCP Central
Committee. For Xi’s vision of Cultural Construction 文化建设 in China, it is
imperative to deploy ideological control across all the relevant arts and cultural
institutions in the state system. As stated in the Culture Construction section
of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the
major achievements and historical experience of the Party’s century-long struggle 中共中
央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议: “Firmly grasp the leadership
of ideological work and build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion and
leadership” 牢牢掌握意识形态工作领导权，建设具有强大凝聚力和引领力的社
会主义意识形态.11
For instance, at the end of March 2022, six months prior to the 20th
Congress of the CCP,12 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its subor-
dinate organizations, CFLAC (including CAA), and the top art academies all had
conferences to strengthen their study of the Party spirit and Xi Jinping Thought.
At these conferences, the importance of more disciplined submission to the Party
and to Xi’s leadership was necessary.
CAFA in Beijing kicked off their meeting first. On March 17, Gao Hong,
Party Secretary of CAFA and Dean of CAFA’s School of Marxism13 shared his
thoughts on how CAFA’s faculty should bring more innovation to their teaching
of the theories of Marxism and the CCP, as well as how to get the Academy
prepared for the 20th Party Congress.14
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s conference took place one day after
CAFA’s and was attended by officials from the CCP’s Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection 中纪委. Hu Heping, the Minister of Culture and Tourism
and Deputy Minister of Propaganda, emphasized at the conference that the pri-
ority for the year for the Ministry is to “enhance the Party leadership of arts
and culture activities and adhere to the principle of the Party controlling cadres
and employees” 强化党建对业务工作的政治引领。要坚持党管干部、党管人才
原则 and “vigorously create an atmosphere that welcomes propaganda and the
carrying out of the 20th Party Congress” 大力营造迎接宣传贯彻党的二十大的
浓厚氛围.15
A week later, on March 24, CFLAC held its 2022 Conference on the
Implementation of Comprehensive and Strict Party Governance 2022年全面从
严治党工作部署会议. In addition to the representatives of CFLAC’s member

institutions, the conference was attended by officials from the Ministry of
Propaganda and CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. At
the conference, Dai Jun, Inspector from the CCP’s Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection stated that CFLAC needs to “strengthen the Party’s pol-
itical leadership and ensure that the Party’s major literary and artistic policies
take root” 加强政治引领，确保党的文艺大政方针落地生根 throughout all the
institutions of CFLAC. Again, the purpose of the conference was to get CFLAC
prepared, under the Party’s leadership, to “welcome the victory of the 20th party
Congress” 迎接党的二十大胜利召开.16
On March 29, the Ministry of Propaganda and CAA announced two
upcoming exhibitions which were to be held over the summer of 2022 to cele-
brate the 20th Party Congress. They called for painters and sculptors from CAA
and the leading art academies to submit artworks that were to be created under
a list of themes specified in the announcement. The first exhibition was called
Celebrating the New Era—(Patriotic) Themed Artworks Exhibition.17 CAA posted
on its website 141 themes18 for artists to choose from and create their works.
All the themes were focused on Realizing the Chinese Dream of the Great
Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation, the Party’s achievement, and Xi’s activ-
ities leading the country. The second exhibition was called Brush and Ink depicting
the Greater Bay Area19 —an art exhibition to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hong
Kong’s return to the motherland.20 CAA listed nearly 50 themes for artists to select
and produce works. The themes were about the CCP’s successful leadership of
Hong Kong and Macau, in particular how the residents in Hong Kong celebrated
the enforcement of the National Security Law. CAA planned to choose a hun-
dred artworks from all the submissions and exhibit them between June and
August 2022 at four locations: the National Museum of China in Beijing, Hong
Kong Central Library, The Old Courthouse in Macau and the Shenzhen Art
Museum.21 This exhibition to Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to
the motherland was named by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as one of the
27 “Major Projects in 2022 to celebrate Mainland-Hong Kong-Macao Cultural
and Tourism Exchange.”22
On April 1, CAA hosted its own 2022 Conference on the Implementation of
Comprehensive and Strict Party Governance 2022 年全面从严治党工作部署会
议,23 attended by all members of the Association. It underscored that the priority
of the work for the year was to welcome the 20th Party Congress. Members of
the Association needed to further study Xi’s speeches on arts and culture over the
past ten years and reinforce the Party’s ideological control of the artistic activities
of the Association.
The next day, on April 2 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism held another
meeting, attended by Party members of the Ministry. It was a dedicated study
session of all of Xi’s speeches since 2012 on the Construction of Cultural Power
of the PRC 习近平总书记关于文化强国建设的重要内容. The purpose of the
meeting, which was held two weeks after the Ministry’s conference to study
the Party’s spirit, was to ensure that the Party and Xi’s requirements on the arts
and culture industry were thoroughly implemented by the Ministry, to create
favorable cultural conditions and a social environment that would facilitate the
public’s embrace of the 20th Party Congress.24
These continuous, intensive study sessions across art institutions in the state
system fully demonstrated the Party’s increasing grip on the arts and culture
industry. As stressed through these meetings, nationalistic themes are to be
conveyed through all types of artistic production, exhibitions and performances
endorsed by the state.
Not only will institutions in the state system coordinate their activities to
supervise art creation and offer ideological guidelines to artists within the system,
but also they are to align their efforts in cultural exchange with foreign coun-
tries to strengthen the PRC government’s diplomatic alliances. For instance, in
July 2017, Shanghai West Bund Development Company, a state-owned enter-
prise under the Xuhui District of the Shanghai municipal government, signed
a five-year strategic plan of collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in France.
According to the plan, the Centre Pompidou would provide loans of artworks
from its permanent collection to West Bund Museum in Shanghai from 2019 to
2024.25 Meanwhile, “several significant Chinese cultural and artistic projects with
representative significance will be exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.”26
The website of the West Bund Museum emphasized the magnitude of this
collaboration:
It was taken as the highest-level cultural cooperation project between

China and France and was included in the Joint Declaration between the
People’s Republic of China and the French Republic in 2018. And in 2019,
it opened to the public at the special moment of the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 55th anniversary of the
establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations.27
In November 2019, the West Bund Museum held its opening ceremony which
officially unveiled the first exhibition of the two museums’ five-year collabor-
ation, The Shape of Time—Highlights of The Centre Pompidou Collection, VOL.1,
A First Semi-Permanent Exhibition.28 Over one hundred artworks from the per-
manent collection of the Centre Pompidou traveled to Shanghai and exhibited
at the West Bund Museum for six months, including paintings by Mondrian,
Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, and sculptures by Giacometti and Marcel Duchamp.
The museum’s inaugural event was well attended by senior government officials
from both countries, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife
Brigitte Macron, District Governor and Deputy Party Secretary of Xuhui
District, Fang Shizhong,29 Party Secretary of Xuhui District, Bao Bingzhong, and
Yu Xiufen, Director of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.30
Such cultural exchange activities,deployed as a tool to fortify the PRC government’s
diplomatic ties with foreign countries, go far beyond museum exhibitions. On
March 25, 2022,Wu Weishan, Director of NAMOC, Deputy Chairman of CAA and
a Professor at Tsinghua University’s Academy of Art, was awarded by the President
of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, with a Francysk Skaryna Medal, the highest state
award from Belarus to honor accomplished talents in arts, culture and technology.31
The medal- presenting ceremony was held at the Belarus embassy in Beijing,
attended by Belarusian Ambassador to China, Yuri Senko, the Deputy Minister of
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Zhang Xu, Special Representative of the
Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, Party Secretary of NAMOC,
Yan Dongsheng, Dean of the Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University, and
Deputy Chairman of CAA, Lu Xiaobo, and Chief Editor of China Art News, the
state-run publication under CFLAC, Kang Wei.32 For the ceremony, the Minister of
Culture of Belarus, Anatoliy Markevich, sent a congratulatory letter to Wu Weishan,
which said “I believe that your inexhaustible talent, wisdom and spiritual strength
will further promote cultural exchanges between China and Belarus and consolidate
the friendship between our two peoples.”33
The award ceremony took place one month after the Russian military,
with assistance from the Belarus government, invaded Ukraine. With the war
deepening and the refugee crisis in Europe intensifying, the international com-
munity has become widely divided: whereas the US, EU, and UK were heavily
sanctioning Russia and Belarus, the PRC government has been directly engaged
in shared activities like cultural exchange. Although the PRC did not openly
claim its support of the war, the award ceremony at the Belarus embassy in
Beijing, with the participation of diplomats from both countries and senior
Chinese officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Director and
the Party Secretary of NAMOC, Vice Chairman of CAA and Dean of the art
academy where Wu Weishan teaches, implied where both states stand. After the
event, news of the award ceremony was highlighted on the front pages of the
websites of NAMOC and Tsinghua’s Academy of Art and Design, as well as
the state-supervised news outlets in China.
Within the state system, arts and culture activities are shaped by the Party’s
political vision and strategies. These institutions form the state-endorsed infra-
structure of China’s arts and culture development. They are led by the Party and
serve the political goals defined by the Party.
Infrastructure
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the supervision of the State
Council, is headquartered in Beijing. The Ministry oversees regulation issuance,
policy-m aking and strategic planning for the visual and performing arts, cul-
ture and tourism industry in China. Hu Heping, the Minister of Culture and
Tourism, is also the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Propaganda under the
CCP Central Committee.
The institutions administered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism

include a number of prominent state- owned museums, visual art research
institutions and performing art organizations, including the Palace Museum, the
National Museum of China, NAMOC, China National Academy of Painting,
the Chinese National Academy of Arts, China National Arts Fund, the National
Library, China National Symphony Orchestra, National Theatre of China and
China National Opera & Dance Drama Theatre. They also regulate the com-
mercial activities of the arts and culture market. Additionally, an important
component of their responsibilities is their supervision of the National Cultural
Heritage Administration (NCHA), a government organization that oversees all
the policy-m aking and market regulation of the antiquities and cultural heritage
of China. Since the trading volume of antiquities (including paintings and works
of art) contributes to the majority of the annual transactions of Chinese auction
houses, NCHA plays a critical regulatory role in shaping the art market in China.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also owns a few media organizations,
including two visual arts publications: China Culture Daily and China Art News.34
Beneath the state-level Ministry, there are culture and tourism departments in
each province and culture and tourism bureaus in every municipal city, to ensure
that the policies of the Ministry are implemented throughout the country. The
local culture and tourism bureaus are the enforcement level of the bureaucracy
that is responsible for censorship review of all the art exhibitions that will open
to the public including nonprofit museum shows, commercial gallery exhibitions
and auction previews. This includes artworks that will travel overseas for com-
mercial and nonprofit exhibitions and works which are to be imported to China
for commercial and nonprofit exhibitions.
The State Museums Under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism

In June 2021, one of the leading state art museums in China, NAMOC,
organized a large-scale exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the
founding of the CCP, Journeys to Greatness and Pictures of Times—Art Exhibition
Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China. 35
Considered one of the most prominent exhibitions for the nationwide cele-
bration of the 100th anniversary and considered a top-down political task,
the exhibition was directly supervised by the Ministry of Propaganda and the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 36 The objective of the survey show was
to demonstrate the achievements of the CCP over the past century, from its
founding in 1921 to the present. The exhibition included over 420 paintings
and sculptures, selected from over 130,000 artworks in NAMOC’s permanent
collection and recent creations from a select number of living artists from the
top art academies. 37 A few art academies, including CAFA, China Academy of
Art and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, all issued press releases proudly announ-
cing that their faculty’s paintings were included in the exhibition, considering
it a prestigious honor.
Wu Weishan, Director of NAMOC, gave the keynote speech at the opening

ceremony of the exhibition. He reinforced the significance of the exhibition for
the Museum and for the creative development of visual art under the tutelage of
the CCP:
Over the past century, the creation of Chinese art has been accompanied
by the rise of the Chinese people, because of the leadership of the CCP,
Chinese people have followed the path of standing up, becoming wealthy,
and gaining strength. It is a creation of history through the creation of art.
It is a unique, distinctive and glorious creation from our history of five
thousand years of civilization.
We firmly believe that under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era, the great Party
and the great motherland will be even more brilliant. Our art creation
will also ref lect and express the brilliance of these glorious achievements.
The Party and the people make artists, and artists are destined to build
monuments for our times, portray the people, and sing praise for the great
Party.38
The survey exhibition included four sections: First, Breaking New Ground 开
辟新天地. In this section, artworks portray how Marxism and Leninism were
introduced to China in the first half of the 20th century, how the CCP was
founded and “how the Party created the PRC by uniting and leading the Chinese
people through difficult explorations and bloodshed, to complete the magnifi-
cent cause of the founding of the country.”39
Second, Building a New China 建设新中国, which depicted the transform-
ation that the CCP brought to the country since the founding of PRC. “The
works in this section show that under the call of the new spirit of the times, the
artists followed the Party’s literary policy and used realistic creative techniques
to express the transforming construction scenes, the proud and joyful Chinese
people, and to convey the positive spirit and strength of the whole society after
the founding of New China.”40
Third, Step into a New Era 迈步新时期. The artworks included in this section
emphasize that since 1978 when The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh
Central Committee of the CCP was held, China entered a new phase of eco-
nomic reform and opening-up policy.
Forth, Forge ahead into a New Era 奋进新时代. Artworks in this section por-
tray the “beautiful picture of (China) forging ahead into a new era and marching
towards a new journey” 展现出奋进新时代、迈向新征程的美好图景41 since the
18th National Congress of the CCP held in November 2012, which solidified Xi
Jinping’s leadership of the Party.
In the largest visual art survey depicting the Party’s centennial history,42 there
was an absence of artworks ref lecting poignant historical events, such as the
Anti-R ightist Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
The thematic emphasis of the exhibition was how the Party, through its
unwavering revolutionary faith and patriotic spirit, saved the Chinese people
from the suffering of war and brought the country to a new era of glory. The
self-congratulatory sentiment and the joy of triumph and conviction was carried
throughout the exhibition.
In terms of the creative approach, all the oil paintings and sculptures in the show
adopted the socialist realism style. Their subject matter had only one focus: to praise
the accomplishments of the Party and its leadership. Had the audience merely taken
the face value of Wu Weishan’s speech at the opening ceremony, that “the creation
of Chinese art” is “a creation of history through the creation of art,” then they
would have the impression that the development of Chinese art since the founding
of the PRC has not progressed beyond the stage of socialist realism.
In an essay published by The Washington Post in November 2021, “A tribute
to mosaics, moonlight and mystery,” the Pulitzer-winning art critic Sebastian
Smee wrote:
Why does art exist? Not so much to beat up on toast as to enact and
embody a whole other set of possibilities. The possibility, for instance, of
continual transformation. Of richness and subtlety and surprise. The pos-
sibility of promiscuity when it comes to meanings, and susceptibility when
it comes to ideas and emotions. The possibility that all things known and
unknown are interpenetrated.43
The same belief was shared by the novelist John Banville in his commentary
published by New York Review of Books in April 2022:
Art, and great art especially, to an extent always withholds itself, conceals
itself, in the plainest of plain sight; the work of art is at once there and
not there. This withdrawnness is one of the qualities, perhaps the most
important one, that contribute to the work’s inexhaustibility, the attribute
that compels us to return again and again to the painting, the poem, the
sonata, the novel, as to a mystery we shall never solve, although the effort,
the repeated interrogation of the work, is a source of undiminishing
interest and aesthetic pleasure.44
Then why were the artworks in the NAMOC show in complete submission
to the socialist realism style? Because the works selected for the exhibition had to
serve a precise political agenda. Any “possibility of promiscuity when it comes
to meanings” or “the work of art is at once there and not there” will not be
tolerated. Clarity of patriotic rhetoric is the prioritized criterion for an artwork
to be included in the exhibition. Not its “withdrawnness,” intellectual “inex-
haustibility” or ambiguity “that compels us to return again and again to the
painting.” Such a curatorial approach has been a rubric for state museums in
China to select artworks and organize exhibitions over the past decade.
As Milovan Djilas wrote:
Not having evolved into a complete theory, “Socialist Realism” actually

means ideological monopolism by Communists. It calls for efforts to clothe
the narrow, backward ideas of the leaders in art forms and for their works
to be depicted romantically and panegyrically. This has led to a Pharisaic
justification of the regime’s control over ideas and to bureaucratic censor-
ship of the needs of art itself.45
Xi instructed during his speech at The Forum on Art and Literature in 2014
文艺座谈会讲话:
Others are keen on the so-called “art for art’s sake,” portraying only their
own sorrow and happiness…this should be a warning to all of us that lit-
erature and art cannot be lost in the tide of the market economy and cannot
deviate from the question of who they should serve.... Literature and art are
to ref lect the voice of the people, and we must adhere to the fundamental
direction of serving the people and socialism.
还有的热衷于所谓“为艺术而艺术”，只写一己悲欢…凡此种种都警示我
们, 文艺不能在市场经济大潮中迷失方向，不能在为什么人的问题上发生
偏差…文艺要反映好人民心声，就要坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务这
个根本方向46
As a matter of fact, artworks on view at NAMOC over the past decades

have not always been so devoted to the socialist realism style. The Museum
has a history of exhibiting thought-provoking, experimental artworks that were
once forerunners in the contemporary art movement in China. From August
to September 1980, the Museum held the second Stars Art exhibition with 149
avant-g arde works shown. The slogan of the exhibition was “We are no longer
children, we want to talk to the world in a new, more mature language.”47 In
February 1989, the China/Avant-Garde exhibition took place at the Museum. It
exhibited 297 artworks by 186 artists including several performing art pieces
that were not originally planned. For instance, Dialogue by artist Xiao Lu, who
“fired two bullets at her installation. It comprised two telephone booths with
photographs of an anonymous male and a female figure.”48 The exhibition “was
closely linked to the June Fourth Movement that year”49 and the photograph of
Dialogue was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York three decades
later as a symbol of the radical artwork from China in 1989.50 Both exhibitions at
NAMOC in the 1980s have been recognized by art historians as landmark events
in the development of Chinese contemporary art.
Even after the events of Tiananmen in 1989, when NAMOC’s programs
became less experimental because of a more stringent censorship environment,
it still retained regular contemporary art exhibitions on an annual basis, some of
which were among the best in the country. For example, from February to April
2007, one year before the Beijing Summer Olympics, a comprehensive survey
of nearly two hundred modern and contemporary American artworks: Art
in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation, curated by the Guggenheim Museum in
New York, was on view at NAMOC.51 In 2008, it held the largest retrospective
of Gerhard Richter’s paintings in China, a collaboration between NAMOC,
Dresden Museum and two other German museums.52 In May 2010, one year
before Ai Weiwei was arrested for his political activism, he curated State of
Things: Exhibition for the Contemporary Art Exchange between China and Belgium
事物状态—中比当代艺术交流展53 at NAMOC with the Belgian artist Luc
Tuymans and the Museum’s director at the time Fan Di’an.54 In 2013, NAMOC
held a contemporary exhibition Darkness Visible: A Ten-Person Exhibition of Chinese
and American Artists 墨以象外—中美艺术家十人展 which was co-curated by
Richard Wine, Managing Editor of Art in America and Zhang Qing, Head of
Research and Curatorial Department of NAMOC. The American artists whose
works on view included Robert Longo, Ray Smith, and Rashid Johnson. Robert
Storr, then the Dean of Yale School of Art and Wu Hung from the University of
Chicago, contributed to the catalog.55 The last time a contemporary art exhib-
ition took place at NAMOC was June 2014, before Wu Weishan was appointed
the Director of the Museum in December of that year. It was called Thingworld-
International Triennial of New Media Art 齐物等观—2014国际新媒体艺术三年展
and included 58 artworks by artists from 22 countries56 At the time, NAMOC
announced that:
it was the first museum in the world to include “new media art” in its aca-
demic vision and organize a Triennial dedicated to this category. Since the
first Triennial was launched in 2008, it has received widespread acclaim in
domestic and international academic communities.57
Since the 2014 International New Media Art Triennial, NAMOC has not
had a single international or domestic exhibition dedicated to contemporary
art. Instead, its programs have been mostly focused on Chinese traditional ink
paintings, patriotic-themed oil paintings and sculptures created by established
artists in the state system. Occasionally it held Western old masters and modern
art exhibitions as part of the government cultural exchange programs.58 These
exhibitions appeared as a fulfillment of the state’s political tasks and had little
engagement with the contemporary art movement in the country. The fact that
this situation happened after Xi’s speech at The Forum on Arts and Literature in
October 201459 is unlikely to be a coincidence.
The trajectory that NAMOC experienced over the past four decades is
representative of state-run museums in the PRC. In retrospect, although the
government’s ideological supervision has never been absent, its rigidity reached a
new plateau late in 2014. In the past, from time to time, the Museum was able to
engage with avant-g arde artists, exhibit their works and introduce novel ideas of
Western contemporary art to Chinese audiences. After 2014, such experimental

programs have gradually been vanishing in state-run museums. Consequently,
international art institutions have been actively pursuing collaborations with pri-
vate museums in China as alternative venues to exhibit Western contemporary
art. This phenomenon has enriched the programs of Chinese private museums
and enabled them to elevate their brand recognition in the international art
community.
The China Artists Association

While the Ministry of Culture and Tourism focuses on industry policy-m aking
and supervision of state-r un arts and culture institutions, CAA has the responsi-
bility of guiding individual member artists, organizing state-endorsed exhibitions,
and granting visual arts awards. CAA is one of the 5560 member institutions of
CFLAC. It has 31 member institutions across 31 provinces61 in China and one
within the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps 新疆生产建设兵团.
CAA also has over 15,500 individual visual artists and art critics as members. In
terms of admitting individual members, CAA has a scoring system based on a
stringent set of criteria.62 For the applicants who are practicing artists, they need
to have a track record of being included in national-level exhibitions multiple
times, have artworks that have appeared in state-level visual art publications,
artworks collected by state-owned museums, or an artwork that has received
an award at the National Art Exhibition, which is held once every five years.
Applicants who are art critics need to have achieved a national art critic award,
completed an art critic project endorsed by the National Social Science Fund,
or published research papers in national professional journals. Due to the highly
rigorous criteria, only a few hundred artists and art critics are selected as CAA
members on an annual basis. Upon being selected as a member, the artist or the
art critic needs to pay a small one-t ime membership fee which will entitle them
to subsequently receive a certificate of membership. Members do not receive an
annual salary or regular payments from the Association. Membership is a symbol
of high status within the state system, not a direct method for receiving financial
compensation from the state.63
CAA’s state-oriented, rigorous selection criteria have been a challenge for
artists whose artworks are too thought-provoking to be included in state-owned
museum shows or collections. Because of this situation, contemporary artists
who have a strong preference to keep their creative independence would prob-
ably not want to apply for membership of CAA. It is by no means a coincidence
that few of the experimental contemporary Chinese artists are members of CAA,
even though the value of their artworks is among the highest in the primary and
secondary markets.
Another phenomenon that is worth noting is that the presidents of the most
prestigious art academies in China: CAFA, China Academy of Art, Academy of
Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Lu Xun
Academy of Fine Arts, are either Chairman (Fan Di’an from CAFA) or Deputy
Chairman of CAA. The academies are technically under the direct supervision of
the Ministry of Education because they provide undergraduate, graduate and PhD-
level education.64 These academies are believed to produce the best visual artists
in China, so having the presidents of the academies in the leadership positions
of CAA (the Ministry of Propaganda controls CFLAC, which controls CAA) is
an indirect way to ensure that the curriculums and programs at the academies
follow the Party’s requirements on the arts and culture industry. For example, the
websites of all these art academies have a dedicated section on learning the history
of the CCP. Each art academy regularly organizes study sessions to discuss the
feedback from faculty and staff on learning the Party’s history.65
In fact, the strict ideological control that permeates the organization of CAA
was well understood by Milovan Djilas:
Similar things are happening in art. Here, favors are extended in increasing
measure to already established forms and views of average quality. This is
understandable: there is no art without ideas, or without some effect on the
consciousness. Monopoly over ideas, and the formation of consciousness,
are the prerequisites of the rulers. Communists are traditionalists in art,
mostly because of the need to maintain their monopoly over the minds of
the people but also because of their ignorance and one-sidedness.66
For contemporary artists who are actively practicing within the PRC, CAA
has often become a point of contention. An online blog post in 2016 discussed
whether being a member of CAA is the only criterion for judging the quality
of creation by an artist.67 It said that during the rapid growth of the Chinese
art market, it is generally perceived that works by an artist who is a member
of CAA could be sold at a higher price than a non-member. Furthermore, the
more senior position an artist holds at CAA the higher prices their artworks
can achieve. CAA’s membership brings artists a prestigious status but often such
status does not speak for the quality of an artist’s creativity. Due to the stringent
and peculiar requirements for CAA to select its members, many acclaimed con-
temporary artists like Zhang Xiaogang, whose avant-g arde artworks are rarely
exhibited at state museums, are not CAA members. Rather, they gain their fame
through participating in international exhibitions and having their works widely
collected by Western collectors. Non-member artworks can both be of high
quality and achieve success in the art market.68
In 2017 a blog stated that CAA and the China Calligraphy Association would
soon be separated from the state administration’s supervision 脱离行政.69 The art-
icle was critical that associations have become overly bureaucratic due to the state
administration. It stated that managers at the associations are often government
officials and have been abusive of tax-payer’s money by financially benefiting
themselves via organizing art exhibitions, art competitions and art training, or
embezzling state funds. The article concluded that separating the art associations
from the state administration has to be done as part of the overall deepening
of the reform. As a result, artists within and outside of the associations will be
treated equally and be evaluated and judged by the art market and, “officials
return to their positions, arts return to the people, and thus the government’s
financial burden is reduced” 官归其位，艺还于民，减除财政负担.70
This critical op-ed of CAA and the state system was widely circulated on the
internet in subsequent years. In June 2022, CFLAC issued a stern statement 严
重声明71 in response to the 2017 blog post. It said that the blog’s claim that the
associations will be separated from the state administration was “false informa-
tion, inconsistent with the facts and caused a misunderstanding among the public
which has resulted in adverse effects” 等虚假信息，与事实严重不符，引起社会公
众的误解，造成了不良影响. The statement reiterated:
The China Artists Association and the China Calligraphers Association are
led by the Communist Party of China. They are professional organizations
consisting of artists and calligraphers from all ethnic groups in China.
They are the bridge and the link between the Party and the PRC gov-
ernment and the artist and calligrapher communities and are an important
force in the development of socialist literature and art and the building
of socialist cultural power in China. The China Artists Association and
China Calligraphers Association are group members of the CFLAC.
The Associations reserve the right to hold any unit or individual legally
responsible if they fabricate information, conduct false propaganda, or
engage in other acts that violate the legitimate rights and interests of CAA
and the China Calligraphers Association, in accordance with the law.
中国美术家协会（简称中国美协）和中国书法家协会（简称中国书协）是
中国共产党领导的、全国各民族美术家和书法家组成的专业性人民团体，
是党和政府联系美术界和书法界的桥梁和纽带，是繁荣发展社会主义文
艺事业、建设社会主义文化强国的重要力量。中国美术家协会、中国书法
家协会是中国文学艺术界联合会的团体会员。
对任何单位或个人编造不实信息，进行虚假宣传，或从事其他侵犯中国
美术家协会、中国书法家协会合法权益的行为，协会保留依法追究其法律
责任的权利。72
CFLAC’s official statement, published on CAA’s website, put an end to the

controversial debate in the public domain. By reinforcing the Party’s leadership,
CFLAC made it crystal clear that the association’s duty is to promote socialist
arts and literature.
The Art Academies

There are 31 universities in China whose undergraduate degrees are dedicated to
training for the creation of visual and performing arts.73 Out of these universities,
17 of them have a strong focus on undergraduate programs for the creation of

visual art and artifacts.
The 17 visual art academies, together with the Academy of Arts and Design
at Tsinghua University,74 provide the most well-respected studio art educational
programs in the country. Among these art academies, the following nine acad-
emies are the most prestigious: the top two are CAFA and China Academy of
Art, followed by the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University, Lu
Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Tianjin Academy of
Fine Arts, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts.
Due to the rigorous admission standards of these nine academies, it is com-
monly believed that aspiring visual artists admitted by the top art academies
have the best creative skills in the country and have the strongest prospects
for developing a successful career as a professional artist after graduation. It is
no coincidence that the leadership of CAA includes presidents from the most
prestigious art academies and that many of the distinguished faculty of these
academies are members of CAA.
The relationship between the state-endorsed art system and these art acad-
emies has always been one of partial control and partial autonomy. Huang
Yasheng of MIT, observed in 2013:
Universities in China are tightly controlled by the Ministry of Education.

In comparison to their fiercely independent counterparts in the West,
Chinese professors are like company employees. Research projects are
often directed from the top down rather than being initiated by professors
and researchers. The dissemination of research findings often has to take a
back seat to the political need to maintain stability.75
On the one hand, the art academies are overseen by the Ministry of Education
under the State Council, which has the authority to approve, review, evaluate
and withdraw degree-g ranting programs at the academies, the foundation of
their education credential. The presidents of the top art academies are on the
leadership team of CAA, an institutional member of CFLAC, and they have to
comply with the ideological guidelines of the Ministry of Propaganda under the
CCP Central Committee. Additionally, the national art projects that advocate
for patriotic themes, including sculptures in front of the newly opened CCP
History Museum,76 the Tiananmen Observatory for the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the PRC, and the visual elements for the Beijing Winter Olympics,
are mostly commissioned by the state to the art academies to design and create.
On the other hand, students who pursue studio art degrees at the academies often
have their own artistic spirit and choose not to create patriotic-themed artworks.
For instance, in 2017, a graduate student at CAFA, Ge Yulu, installed a godemiché
on the f lagpole that is used to f ly the national f lag on campus as an improvised
artwork.77 The installation caused an enormous amount of controversy on campus
and on the internet. Many faculty perceived his act and the installation as scan-
dalous and CAFA nearly decided not to grant him an MFA degree. In the end, Ge’s
mentor, a faculty member and acclaimed contemporary artist, Song Dong, also a
member of CAA, had to intervene and plead for Ge. Subsequently, the Academy’s
leadership withdrew their punishment after being persuaded by Song.
In addition to art students experimenting and going to unexplored creative
spaces, the art museums affiliated with the art academies have more f lexibility
to curate exhibitions that are not patriotism centered. For example, from late
October 2019 to early January 2020 CAFA Art Museum held the first Anish
Kapoor monographic show in China and the Swiss art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist
was chosen as the special curatorial advisor of the exhibition.78 From March to
May 2019, CAFA Art Museum organized Maggi Hambling’s first retrospective
in China, curated by the British curator Philip Dodd.79
However, since the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CCP in 2021,
the ideological controls at the art academies have been dramatically strengthened.
From October to November 2021, the Party Committee Inspection Team of
the Ministry of Education visited CAFA and reviewed the Academy’s practices
of following the Party’s guidelines,80 particularly Xi Jinping Thought on
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. In February 2022, the
Inspection Team shared their evaluation which included criticism of the leader-
ship of CAFA.81 According to the Inspection Team, “(CAFA) had a number of
weaknesses in learning and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, in particular Xi’s speech on e ducation”
学习贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想特别是习近平总书记关于教育的
重要论述不够到位. “The Academy’s implementation of the strategic plan to be
governed by the Party in a strict manner is not strong enough, and (CAFA’s)
Party Committee is not strong enough to fulfill its main responsibility” 落实
全面从严治党战略部署不够有力，党委履行主体责任不够有力. As a result, the
Inspection Team required that the leadership of the Academy take several actions,
including to “Adhere to and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership of the
Academy...deepen the strict governance of the Party at the Academy” 坚持和加强
党对学校的全面领导…深入推进全面从严治党.82
At the end of the meeting, Gao Hong, the Party Secretary of CAFA, said:
The inspection team pointed out the problems objectively and precisely,
hit the nail on the head, and the suggestions, recommendations and work
requirements are very relevant and instructive.... The Academy’s Party
Committee sincerely accepts the criticism and will resolutely rectify the
problems.
巡视组指出的问题客观精准、切中要害，提出的意见建议和工作要求针对
性和指导性都很强…学校党委诚恳接受、照单全收、坚决整改.
He promised that the Academy will “firmly stick to the direction of socialist
education…ensure that CAFA is a cradle for cultivating socialist builders and the
next generation of socialists.” 牢牢把握社会主义办学方向…把学校办成培养社

会主义建设者和接班者的摇篮.83
It seems highly likely that with the Party further expanding its ideological
control over the art academies, it will be more challenging for faculty and
students to develop alternative voices in their teaching and artistic creation. As
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in his report to the 20th CPC National
Congress in October 2022, Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects
高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜为全面建设社会主义现代化国家而团结奋斗:
Continue to reinforce the propaganda and education of the history of the

Party, the history of new China, the history of China’s reform and opening
up, and the history of socialist development…use core socialist values to
cultivate the soul and educate people, improve the ideological and political
work system, and advance the integration of ideological and political
education in universities, middle and primary schools.
持续抓好党史、新中国史、改革开放史、社会主义发展史宣传教育…用社
会主义核心价值观铸魂育人，完善思想政治工作体系，推进大中小学思想
政治教育一体化建设84
The Actions
Since Xi was selected to become the General Secretary of the CCP at the 18th
National Congress in 2012, and the introduction of the “Five-in-One” 五位
一体 masterplan which included Cultural Construction 文化建设 as a signifi-
cant component, a series of changes have taken place in the state art sector. The
systematic planning and implementation of these changes over the past decade
have been propagated throughout the state arts and culture infrastructure by the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism and CAA. The art academies have also played
an essential role in training highly patriotic artists and taking on government-
commissioned art projects that showcase the Party’s accomplishments.
China National Arts Fund

One of the first major changes came with the establishment of CNAF. It is the
first grant-m aking fund with capital provided by the state that allows any insti-
tution or individual in China to apply for funding through its online application
system.
The creation of CNAF was initially announced in the Ministry of Culture’s 12th
Five-Year Plan85 published in May 2012, six months before Xi was elected General
Secretary of the CCP. After the initiative’s approval by the State Council, CNAF
was launched under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture86 in December
2013.87 The founding capital was provided by the Ministry of Finance, mainly
through the revenue collected from China’s public lottery system. The initial
funding allocated to CNAF in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015) for visual
and performing art projects was RMB 2 billion88 (USD 300 million). Because
CNAF was launched at the end of 2013, this amount was designated to sponsor art
projects in the years 2014 and 2015. In 2014, the first year CNAF started offering
its financial endorsement, it sponsored 393 art projects. CNAF began its funding
with a relatively small number of art projects and programs in 2014. The rationale
at the time was that it was the first year when CNAF started to provide funding
and the Ministry of Culture preferred to take it slowly to evaluate the success of
the initiative. The art projects and programs (including visual and performing art)
that CNAF funded in 2014 were categorized into five areas: 1) Creation of large-
scale stage performances; 2) Creation of small-scale stage performances; 3) Cultural
exchange and promotion projects (including domestic and international trav-
eling performances and exhibitions); 4) Artistic talent training grants program;
5) Sponsoring individual creations by young artists (under 40).
Since CNAF started they have consistently provided monetary support to
each of the five categories on an annual basis. Applicants who plan to apply for
the funding through CNAF’s online system need to choose a category that is
appropriately aligned with their projects. Individual applicants can only apply for
funding in Category 5 (see above). The four other categories are eligible for insti-
tutional applicants only. According to CNAF’s guidelines for applications for art
projects in 2023, for an individual artist to apply for funding to create a visual art-
work (Category 5), the amount cannot exceed RMB 100,00089 (USD 15,000).90
For an institution to apply for funding for a visual art exhibition (Category 3),
the amount cannot exceed RMB 1.5 million91 (USD 225,000). Once an art
project is selected as CNAF’s grantee for the year, the funding will be offered
in installments: Category 1 (Creation of large-scale stage performances)92 and
4 (Artistic talent training grants program)93 will be funded in three phases: the
beginning of the project, when the project has proved satisfactory during the
midterm evaluation, and when the project passes the final evaluation upon com-
pletion. Art projects in the remaining three categories will be funded in two
phases: the start of the project and upon project completion and a satisfactory
final evaluation. The art project normally must be completed within the same
calendar year as the grant announcement date. If an applicant needs an extension
to finish the project, the extension cannot exceed 12 months and will require
approval from CNAF.
In terms of the criteria used for selecting visual and performing art projects,
they are based on the following guiding principles of CNAF:
“CNAF is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics for a New Era and adheres to the Party’s leadership over lit-
erary and artistic work” 国家艺术基金以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想
为指导，始终坚持党对文艺工作的领导.94 In addition, it abides by the principle
of serving the people and serving socialism 坚持二为方向. In terms of the art
projects CNAF endorses, they have to “ref lect the realization of the Chinese
dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, cultivate and promote
core socialist values, inherit and promote the excellence of traditional Chinese
culture, sing the main theme of patriotism, strengthen cultural confidence, and
ref lect the Chinese spirit” 反映实现中华民族伟大复兴中国梦，培育和弘扬社会
主义核心价值观，传承和弘扬中华优秀传统文化，唱响爱国主义主旋律，坚定
文化自信，体现中国精神的项目.95
Although CNAF was initiated before Xi became General Secretary of the
CCP, once it was officially launched under Xi, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism
with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era indisputably became the primary
guiding principle that CNAF and the art projects it sponsors have to follow.
Before CNAF was created, the state’s sponsorship of art projects in China had
been distributed through the fiscal allocation to existing state-run institutions
(i.e., state museums, theatres and dance companies). The creation of CNAF
offered an additional channel of state funding. Relatively speaking, a more open
and transparent platform where applicant institutions, artists in state-r un art asso-
ciations, and freelancer artists, can submit their applications for funding through
CNAF’s website. But there is one fundamental condition they have to meet: the
art projects have to follow the above ideological guidelines.
In less than a decade, CNAF has become the most prestigious grant-m aking
fund in the state-endorsed art system in China. CNAF’s transparency and com-
petitiveness, compared with other grant-m aking funds in the state contribute to
its brand recognition because the application procedure and criteria are publicly
available on the website of CNAF.96 Once CNAF makes a decision on the art
projects they are going to sponsor for the year, they will disclose the list to the
public and offer a one-week window for the public to question their decisions
before the list of art projects is finalized.97 Almost every year CNAF will publish
a report disclosing information on the demographics of applicants and the selec-
tion rate for each category of funding. Nearly on an annual basis, CNAF will
release a self-a ssessment report to evaluate the level of success of the art projects
it funded during the year. Although the breakdown of the funding for specific
projects has not been revealed, CNAF’s transparency so far has surpassed other
grant-m aking funds by the state in the arts and culture sector in China.
Such transparency, which is almost unprecedented in the state art system,
has encouraged more applicants nationwide to apply for the grants, making the
process increasingly competitive. According to CNAF’s evaluation of appli-
cant reports in 2014, the first year CNAF started to operate, there were 4,25698
applications for funding, out of which CNAF selected 394 projects.99 In 2022 there
were 10,978 applications for funding, out of which CNAF chose 628 projects to
fund.100 In the nearly one decade since CNAF was launched, applications for art
projects increased by 158% and the selection rate decreased from 9.3% to 5.7%.
It is fair to say that because of CNAF’s funding support for an extensive range
of visual and performing art projects and the relatively transparent information
disclosure mechanism, CNAF is one of the most successful initiatives in the state
system under Xi. In July 2022, according to a speech by Lei Xining, Director of
CNAF, over the past eight years, CNAF has provided funding to 6,413 projects
with a total amount of nearly RMB 5.1 billion (USD 760 million101). “CNAF
has played an important role in promoting the prosperity of literature and art
in the new era of China...and explored a new way to support the development
of national art” 国家艺术基金在推动新时代文艺繁荣发展中发挥了重要作
用…探索出了一条支持国家艺术事业发展的新路.102
For instance, in 2016, Tsinghua University Art Museum’s exhibition,
Leonardo da Vinci: Dialogue between History and Future,103 the first time that China
borrowed 60 original manuscripts created by Leonardo,104 was sponsored by
CNAF as part of the funding of the year for a project in Category 3.105 In
2018 CAFA worked with the Chinese consulate in New York and organized a
series of art events to celebrate the Chinese New Year, including a light show
at the Empire State Building, a fireworks performance along the Hudson River
and a Chinese New Year concert by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln
Center.106 The series of art activities was funded by CNAF as part of its funding
for Category 3 in 2017.107 It was one of the most high-profile Chinese New Year
celebrations in New York over the past decade.
For individual artists, CNAF has also bolstered their career development. In
2022, 25% of CNAF’s total number of projects was for Category 5 and 5% of the
projects in Category 5 sponsored freelance artists. Although CNAF does not dis-
close the exact amount allocated to each category each year, in December 2021,
China Culture Daily, a weekly newspaper published by the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism, reported that since 2014 CNAF had funded 1,725 artists under
40 years of age with a total amount of RMB 250 million108 (USD 39 million).
According to this statement, the average funding to these young artists was
RMB 144,928 (USD 22,400) per person. In 2021 annual per capita dispos-
able income of urban households in China 2021 was RMB 47,412109 (USD
7,300), the highest in three decades.110 The fact that the average annual per
capita funding to young artists by CNAF was three times that of the highest
amount of the per capita disposable income of urban households in China over
the past decade demonstrates the state’s interest in nurturing young artists with
strong political loyalty. This also explains why CNAF can attract a considerable
number of applicants. In 2022 CNAF began to restrict the maximum amount
granted for each project in Category 5 to RMB 100,000 (USD 15,000), a 50%
reduction in the maximum grant for oil painting and sculpture projects and a
33% reduction in the maximum grant for prints and photographs during 2015 to
2020. The decision did not discourage applicants from applying: they received
3,394 applications111 in 2022, the second-h ighest number of applications after
2020 (3,418).112 In 2022, 159 projects in Category 5 were chosen. The selection
rate was 4.7%, the most competitive year of the past decade. In 2014, 1,168 indi-
vidual artists applied for CNAF113 and since then the number has been gradually
increasing. In less than a decade the number of individual applicants nearly
tripled.
The drastic growth in the number of applicants has also increased the admin-
istrative workload for CNAF to review the project applications, which normally
takes two rounds of evaluation by thousands of experts before a final list is

announced.
Once CNAF receives the applications, they assemble an expert team through
CNAF’s online expert and scholar database to evaluate and select the projects for
CNAF to fund. For some projects, CNAF will provide the complete funding
requested, for others that are selected they will offer partial funding, all based on
the consensus of the expert team.
When CNAF makes its decision on which art projects it plans to support for
that year, it will put together a comprehensive team with scholars and experts
across different art fields to monitor the progress and evaluate the success of
the projects. The collective project assessment by CNAF before it gives out
the final installment of funding to each project is another layer of laborious
administrative work.
In 2019, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC,
CNAF offered grant support to 1,083 visual and performing art projects in
China with a total amount of RMB 749 million (USD 110 million).114 It was the
year when CNAF granted the highest amount of financial support to the largest
number of projects since the fund was launched.115 The application was open to
the public in February 2018 and the final selection was announced in December
2018. Except for 171 Culture Exchange and Promotional Projects 交流推广项目
which were to be completed over a period of two years, the rest of the projects
were expected to be finalized by years end. During the project management
process, CNAF assigned 650 experts to supervise the progress of the projects
to be completed in 2019. In the final project evaluation stage, CNAF arranged
148 experts, who specialized in visual or performance arts, project management
or finance management, to provide their assessment. The most important cri-
teria of project evaluation were whether the projects followed the guidelines of
Xi’s speeches and whether they made any contribution to promote socialist arts
and culture by serving the people. In the visual arts fields, the projects funded
included The New China Revolutionary History Sculpture Exhibition 新中国革命历
史题材雕塑作品展, organized by Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, The 70th
Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC Zhejiang Beautiful Countryside Art Ecological
Exhibition 建国70周年浙江美丽乡村艺术生态展, organized by Zhejiang Normal
University, Creative Talent Training for Chinese Painting on Major National
Historical Themes 国家重大历史题材中国画创作人才培养, initiated by Hubei
Institute of Fine Arts, and Talent Training of China Rural Construction Research
中国乡村建设研究人才培养, initiated by CAFA.116 It is worth noting that for the
talent training program for rural construction research, implemented by CAFA’s
Visual Arts Advanced Innovation Center Rural Culture Construction Studio 视
觉艺术高精尖创新中心文化乡建工作室 from September to November in 2019,
the Academy invited four international experts including the acclaimed Dutch
architect and founder of OMA, Rem Koolhas and Karl Otto Ellefsen of the
European Association for Architectural Education.117 The Innovation Center
also worked with Rem Koolhas118 and incorporated their joint research119 funded
by CNAF into the exhibition Countryside, the Future held at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York from February 2020 to February 2021, in which Koolhas
was a collaborator.120
Regulations for the Administration of Business Operations of Artworks

Another significant change this past decade was the issue of a regulation by the
Ministry of Culture121 in 2016: Regulations for the Administration of Business Operations
of Artworks 艺术品经营管理办法.122 It was expanded based on the Regulations for
the Administration of Business Operations of Fine Artworks 美术品经营管理办法123
issued by the Ministry in July 2004. The new regulation was passed in December
2015 and became officially effective in January 2016. Updates to the law were
motivated by a number of reasons. First, to align with the spirit of the Party’s
18th Congress and the spirit of a series of speeches by Xi.124 Second, due to the
rapid growth of the Chinese art market trading activities which had increased
exponentially. The new regulation, therefore, began by shifting specific lan-
guage usage to “artworks” 艺术品 from “fine artworks” 美术品 to clarify that
the new law is focused on works created by living artists and excludes antiqui-
ties125 which are governed by a different regulation.126 Additionally, rather than
approving business activities for artwork import and export 艺术品进出口经营
活动 by the Ministry themselves as done in the past, the Ministry decided to
delegate the rights to culture bureaus at the provincial level. Third, to con-
trol speculative trading activities in the Chinese art market the new regulation
outlawed behaviors such as securitization of artworks, “concealing the source
of the artwork or important matters related to the artwork to mislead the
buyers” and “forgery, falsification of the source of art, art appraisal and evalu-
ation documents and other transaction documents.”127 Fourth, the requirements
for censorship and review were substantially expanded. For any exhibition that
involves artworks from overseas or artworks traveling abroad, the organizer
needs to submit an application 45 days in advance, whereases the regulation in
2004 required 30 days advanced submission.128 Moreover, the types of prohibited
content that may not be contained in an artwork are more extensive in the new
regulation. Artworks with prohibited content may not be traded.
In November 1994, the Ministry of Culture issued the first Regulations for
the Administration of Business Operations of Fine Artworks 美术品经营管理办法. At
the time, the development of Chinese contemporary art was still at an early
stage and certain art forms like installations 装置 and handicrafts 工艺美术 were
not included in the regulation. Nor did the regulation require any exhibition
organizer to submit an application for censorship review and approval, unless the
show had a sponsor 赞助. And it did not specify a long list of prohibited content
except for one line “artworks that are reactionary, obscene and harmful to the
construction of the spirit of a socialist civilization” 内容反动、淫秽等有害于社会
主义精神文明建设的美术品.129
The changes to the laws by the Ministry of Culture over a two-decade period
demonstrated that the substantial expansion of the Chinese art market presented
both a challenge and an opportunity for the PRC government. On the one
hand, as more speculative and fraudulent trading activities emerged, the regu-
lator had to revise the law to introduce better governance to the business of
art. On the other hand, the rapid growth of the market, particularly importing
and exporting artworks, encouraged the government to recognize the economic
value of such activities. Instead of centralizing all the power within the Ministry,
they realized that by delegating the right of approval to the provincial level, art
import and export would be able to expand more significantly.
Meanwhile, the revision of regulations also ref lected a more rigid environ-
ment of ideological control by the government. Not only would the lead time for
an exhibition organizer to submit documents for government approval be much
longer, according to the new regulation, but also the list of content (in artworks)
forbidden from showing in public would be much more exhaustive. The com-
plete list of subjects that are forbidden from being exhibited according to the
regulation issued in 2016 is:
1. Opposing the basic principles established by the Constitution

2. Endangering national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity
3. Leaking state secrets, endangering national security, or harming national
honor and interests
4. Inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination, undermining national unity,
or harming ethnic customs and habits
5. Undermining national religious policies, promoting cults and superstition
6. Promoting terrorist activities, spreading rumors, disturbing social order,
undermining social stability
7. Promoting obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, or abetting crime
8. Insulting or slandering others, infringing on the legitimate rights and
interests of others
9. Contrary to social morality or national cultural traditions
10. Deliberately falsifying history, serious distortions of history
11. Any other content that is prohibited by laws, regulations, and state regulations
（一）反对宪法确定的基本原则的；
（二）危害国家统一、主权和领土完整的；
（三）泄露国家秘密、危害国家安全或者损害国家荣誉和利益的；
（四）煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视，破坏民族团结，或者侵害民族风俗、习惯
的；
（五）破坏国家宗教政策，宣扬邪教、迷信的；
（六）宣扬恐怖活动，散布谣言，扰乱社会秩序，破坏社会稳定的；
（七）宣扬淫秽、色情、赌博、暴力或者教唆犯罪的；
（八）侮辱或者诽谤他人，侵害他人合法权益的；
（九）违背社会公德或者民族优秀文化传统的；
（十）蓄意篡改历史、严重歪曲历史的；
（十一）有法律、法规和国家规定禁止的其他内容的130
It goes without saying that the list above offers ample liberty for interpretation by
the regulators. In practice, because the censorship reviews are at the discretion of
the local culture bureaus, officials have the authority to make their own decisions
on what content is not allowed to be shown, based on the ambiguous descriptions
above. As a result, what happened to the artist Yuan Yunsheng’s paintings (discussed
earlier in the chapter) before his retrospective at Long Museum in 2022 is far from
atypical.
The Merger between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism
and the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Culture Industry
Despite the PRC government’s expanded ideological control over the arts and
culture industry, the Party leadership has made it clear it would like to bolster
the development of the sector to become a pillar of the country’s GDP growth.131
In March 2018, the institutional reform plan initiated by the State Council was
approved at the 13th National People’s Congress. According to the plan, the
Ministry of Culture and the Bureau of Tourism merged into a single entity,
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.132 In April 2018, the new Ministry was
officially launched. The purpose of the merger was to fully achieve the synergy
between culture and tourism industries and to “build a strong socialist cultural
power in China and to provide solid support and sustained power to achieve
the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” 建设社会
主义文化强国...(为)实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦提供有力支撑和持续动
力.133 By combining culture and tourism, the government also aims to further
enhance the economic value of the culture industry. Based on the data provided
by the Ministry in 2021, from 2015 to 2019, the output of the culture industry
contributed 4.5% to China’s GDP.134 From the perspective of policy makers, real-
izing the objective of expanding the industry to become a pillar of GDP growth,
more actions would be necessary.
In March 2021, the PRC government issued the Outline of the 14th Five-
Year Plan (2021–2025) for National Economic and Social Development of the
People’s Republic of China and Vision for 2035 中华人民共和国国民经济和社
会发展第十四个五年规划和2035年远景目标纲要.135 A substantial section of the
Outline was dedicated to “development of advanced socialist culture to enhance
the national cultural soft power” 发展社会主义先进文化提升国家文化软实
力.136 The Outline required that the “development of culture and tourism needs
to be promoted in an integrated way” 推动文化和旅游融合发展 and “adhere to
the social benefits (of culture) as the priority while balancing the social benefits
and the economic benefits, and improve the modern culture industry system
and market system” 坚持把社会效益放在首位、社会效益和经济效益相统一，健
全现代文化产业体系和市场体系.137 A crucial goal that the Vision for 2035 stated

is that by 2035 the PRC is to become a cultural powerhouse 文化强国 and to
achieve a new level of social civilization with a significant increase in national
cultural soft power 社会文明程度达到新高度，国家文化软实力显著增强.138
Based on the national strategic Outline and Vision, the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism announced its “14th Five- Year Culture Industry Development
Plan” 十四五文化产业发展规划 in May 2021139 and the “The 14th Five-Year
Plan for Artistic Creation” 十四五艺术创作规划140 in June 2021 which laid out
the blueprint for the development of the arts and culture industry from 2021 to
2025. Furthermore, in May 2022, the General Office of the Central Committee
of the CCP and the Office of the State Council issued “Opinions on Promoting
the Implementation of the National Culture Digital Strategy” 关于推进实施
国家文化数字化战略的意见.141 The three five- year plans emphasized several
initiatives that the Ministry is taking to boost the industry.
Overall, the priority is to implement the digital strategy for the cultural
industry. The PRC government aims to establish a comprehensive national cul-
tural big data system by 2035, including a database called “Red Gene” 红色基
因 which has a strong focus on revolutionary culture and socialist culture. As a
result, “Chinese culture can be presented panoramically and Chinese culture’s
digital achievements can be shared by all” 中华文化全景呈现，中华文化数字
化成果全民共享.142 The objective of the National Culture Digital Strategy
is to “build a cultural digital infrastructure and service platform, form online
and off line integration and interaction, and create three-d imensional coverage
of the culture service supply system” 基本建成文化数字化基础设施和服务
平台，形成线上线下融合互动、立体覆盖的文化服务供给体系 before the end
of 2025. As part of the plan, the government intends to connect the state-run
culture institutions through a “Specialized National Culture Network” 国家
文化专网, so that all the data can be shared and traded via the state-operated
platform.143 Furthermore, the central government will “develop culture data
security standards, strengthen the Chinese culture database data entry standards,
and enhance the culture data security supervision system” 制定文化数据安
全标准，强化中华文化数据库数据入库标准，构建完善的文化数据安全监
管体系.144 And most importantly, to “strengthen the management of crucial
outbound culture data security and reinforce culture data security protections” 明
确重要文化数据出境安全管理举措，切实加强文化数据安全保护.145
This series of initiatives to emphasize the control of the internet and
online database are in line with the Party’s centennial Resolution announced in
November 2021:
The CCP Central Committee clearly stated that if the internet is not fully
controlled, the long-term governance of the Party will not be achieved. The
Party attaches great importance to the internet as the main front, the main
battlefield, and the forefront of ideological struggle. It insists on enhancing the
leadership over the internet management system and supervising the internet
in accordance with the law. Only in this way, can an unpolluted cyberspace
be created.
党中央明确提出，过不了互联网这一关就过不了长期执政这一关。党高度
重视互联网这个意识形态斗争的主阵地、主战场、最前沿，健全互联网领
导和管理体制，坚持依法管网治网，营造清朗的网络空间146
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will strengthen the digitalization of

the industry by relying on big data, 5G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence,
virtual reality and augmented reality to develop online broadcasting, digital
art and creativity, digital entertainment and immersive experience programs.
These technologies will be applied to promote Chinese traditional culture and
socialist culture. Specifically, over the five years, the Ministry will produce over
100 online broadcasting projects, over 100 immersive experience programs, and
create over 100 digital art projects.147 In aggregate they expect to support the
production of more than 1,000 culture projects over this period.
In terms of the visual arts sector, the Ministry plans to nurture a group of
galleries that the Ministry believes are scholarly and trustworthy. Additionally,
they will encourage the development of art merchandise, licensing and e-
commerce. Moreover, they will launch a number of arts and culture fairs.
Another field that the Ministry sees as imperative to increase the state funding
of is the creation and collection of patriotic artworks. According to the 14th Five-
Year Plan for Artistic Creation 十四五艺术创作规划, the Ministry will provide
more patronage via CNAF and other funding sources to endorse visual art cre-
ation which are focused on “(social) realistic themes, revolutionary themes, trad-
itional (Chinese) themes” 现实题材、革命题材、传统题材. They will continue
acquiring artworks to expand “national thematic art special collections” 国家主
题性美术专项收藏. Furthermore, the Ministry plans to train more talented and
high-potential individuals at state museums in the fields of general management,
curatorial planning, public education and collection management. They will
train more young artists at state-r un art academies and organize them to work
on the creation of major revolutionary, historical and realistic themed artworks
组织开展重大革命、重大历史、重大现实题材创作.148
In addition, the Ministry aims to “build a literary and art critic system for the
new era” 构建新时代文艺评价体系. Specifically, to “deepen the systematic and
academic research on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speeches on literature and art;
create a number of branded columns on literature and art criticism and support a
number of new media commentary platforms for culture and art; and carry out
key commentary activities” 深化对习近平总书记关于文艺工作重要论述的整体
性、系统性、学理性研究；打造一批文艺评论品牌栏目，扶持一批文化艺术类新
媒体评论平台；组织开展重点评论活动 and select and nurture a group of talented
young art critics on an annual basis through projects like CNAF’s “Young Talents
Grant.”149
In August 2022, two months before the 20th Party Congress was held
in Beijing, the General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP and
the State Council jointly issued the “14th Five-Year Culture Development
Plan”150 十四五文化发展规划. Overall, the content of the Plan is a reiteration
of the content of other five-year plans. When examined closely, the Plan
issued in August 2022 particularly strengthened the requirements for further
studying Xi Jinping Thought and ensuring that Xi Jinping Thought is broadly
taught through “easy-to-access languages” 大众化语言 and “artistic forms”
艺术化形式.
Make the study and propaganda implementation of Xi Jinping Thought

on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era a major long-
term political task, improve the normalization and long-term mechanism
of continuous and in-depth study, and improve the work system of arming
the Party and educating the people with the Party’s innovative theories.
把学习宣传贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想作为长期重大政治
任务，完善持续深入学习的常态化长效化机制，健全用党的创新理论武装
全党、教育人民的工作体系。
The Plan announced in August 2022 that it would incorporate the Project
to Explore the Source of Chinese Civilization which was discussed in the pre-
vious chapter. Because the Project has been directly supervised by the CCCPC,
it is not surprising that it was not listed in the 14th five-year plans issued by the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Additional goals include:
in-depth study of the origins and characteristics of Chinese civilization and

Chinese culture, and the construction of a conceptual system of Chinese
cultural genes.
深入研究中华文明、中华文化的起源和特质，构建中国文化基因的理念体
系。
More importantly, the Plan in August 2022 reinforces the Party’s leader-
ship at state-owned culture enterprises. As required by the Plan, the efforts to
strengthen the leadership of the Party needs to be written in the corporate char-
ters of these enterprises to:
make it clear that the Party organization’s study and discussion of major
business and management issues is a pre-requisite before the board of dir-
ectors and managers can make decisions. Enterprises must give the Party
organization a legal status within the corporate governance structure.
明确党组织研究讨论企业重大经营管理事项是董事会、经理层决策重大
问题的前置程序，落实党组织在公司治理结构中的法定地位。
And these enterprises need to “improve the evaluation and assessment system
for prioritizing social benefits and unifying social and economic benefits.” 健全
把社会效益放在首位、社会效益和经济效益相统一的评价考核体系。
Fundamentally the Plan in August 2022 reiterated the “role of the Party in
overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all constituencies” 党总揽全
局、协调各方的作用 in the arts and culture sector.
Taken together, the series of strategic plans for the development of arts and
culture in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) and the Vision for 2035 clearly
underscores the Party’s statement on “Cultural Construction” in its centennial
Resolution in November 2021:
Ideological work is the work of establishing the heart of the country and
the soul of the nation. Cultural confidence is a more basic, broader and
deeper confidence. It is the most basic, deep and lasting force in the devel-
opment of a country and a nation. Without a high level of cultural confi-
dence and without cultural prosperity, there will be no great rejuvenation
of the Chinese nation.
意识形态工作是为国家立心、为民族立魂的工作，文化自信是更基础、更
广泛、更深厚的自信，是一个国家、一个民族发展中最基本、最深沉、最持
久的力量，没有高度文化自信、没有文化繁荣兴盛就没有中华民族伟大复
兴151
Such a determination was further highlighted by Xi Jinping in his report to

the 20th CPC National Congress in October 2022:
We will firmly grasp the leadership of the Party over ideological work,
fully implement the system of responsibility for ideological work, and con-
solidate and strengthen the mainstream ideology and public opinion for
the new era.
牢牢掌握党对意识形态工作领导权，全面落实意识形态工作责任制，巩
固壮大奋进新时代的主流思想舆论152
Yuan Yunsheng’s Retrospective—Epilogue

After nearly one month of delay, Yuan Yunsheng’s retrospective at Long Museum
in Shanghai finally opened at the end of July 2022. The three paintings that did
not pass censorship review by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and
Tourism in early July were not exhibited. Ironically, a replica of the mural that
Yuan created in 1979 for the Beijing International Airport, which triggered a
public controversy that year due to the images of bathing nudes, Water Splashing
Festival—Hymn of Life, was the first painting on view when visitors walked into
the Museum. As commented by Art and Design, the work represented “a monu-
ment in the history of contemporary Chinese art.”153
The letter by Yuan’s wife to the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture
and Tourism was never properly addressed. The entire controversy before the
opening of Yuan Yunsheng’s retrospective gradually vanished into oblivion
without a single mention in the domestic Chinese press.
Less than a month after the incident of Yuan Yunsheng’s retrospective at
Long Museum, artist Zhang Xiaogang received an update from the culture
bureau in Shanghai regarding the censorship review of his solo exhibition
scheduled to take place at the same museum in September 2022. This exhib-
ition planned to show his latest group of artworks created during the pandemic
which conveyed the agonizing and complex human emotions felt during the
COVID-19 period. The show was postponed for at least six months without a
clear exhibition date promised by the bureau. Perhaps it was due to the strict
ideological guidelines—art exhibitions are expected to “exert maximum posi-
tive energy” 发挥最大正能量154 and to “tell a good China story” 讲好中国故
事?155 Or perhaps it was something else?
While the Party continues to reinforce its ideological control and restrict
thought-provoking artistic expression, independent artists in China are facing
an increasingly challenging time as they explore an autonomous space for their
creativity. How are they seeking innovative ways of channeling their creative
energy? Will this environment shape a new dynamic in the Chinese contem-
porary art movement? How will this impact their interaction with the rest of the
world? Part III of the book will further explore this topic.
Notes
1 www.thelong museum.org/en/exh ibition-369/deta il-1806.html.
2 www.thelong museum.org/en/exh ibition-369/deta il-1806.html.
4 https://ie.bjd.com.cn/5b165687a010550e5ddc0e 6a/content App/5b16573ae4b02a9fe
2d558f9/A P5d8bf 721e4b0f 79755dc5c80.html.
5 www.ad.tsinghua.edu.cn/old/i nfo/1084/1258.htm.
6 This was not publicly circulated and I was able to view it because some of my contacts
had it in their possession.
7 www.namoc.org/x wzx/x w/x inwen_ 2017/201704/t 20170407_ 306272.htm.
8 This used to be the Ministry of Culture. In March 2018, the State Council decided
to combine the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism, now the Ministry
of Culture and Tourism.
9 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/201707/t 20170711_ 685521.htm.
10 http://cultu re.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0711/c87423–29397713.html.
12 The importance of the 20th Party Congress, took take place a decade after the 18th
Congress of CCP when Xi was elected the General Secretary of the Party, had been
highly stressed by the Party’s official publications http://d angjian.people.com.cn/n1/

2022/0303/c117092–32364039.html.
13 CAFA’s School of Marxism was established at the end of 2020, as part of the CCP’s
campaign to create many schools of Marxism in the universities across China to
strengthen the study of CCP and Marxist theories.
16 www.cf lac.org.cn/zgwl/wldt/202203/t 20220325_587662.html.
19 The Greater Bay Area 大湾区 refers to Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhan and Guangdong
province. The PRC has developed a strategic economic plan to increase the integra-
tion of these places.
22 http://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/jlhz/g atjl hz/202203/t 20220329_932157.html.
24 www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/202204/t 20220402 _932286.htm.
25 www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2017/07–15/8278622.shtml.
26 www.wbmshanghai.com/en/i ndex/about-us/about-westbu nd-museum.
27 www.wbmshanghai.com/en/i ndex/about-us/about-westbu nd-museum.
28 www.wbmsh angh ai.com/en/category/exhibition/deta il!www-wbmsh ang h ai- com-
theshapeofti me.
29 https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/baidu/201911/06/300505.html.
30 www.prnasia.com/l ightnews/l ightnews-1–102–21751.shtml.
34 The direct editorial supervisor of Art News of China is the Chinese National Academy
of Arts.
36 In 2018, PRC’s State Council decided to combine the Ministry of Culture and China
National Tourism Administration into the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Since
then, the new Ministry has overseen both cultural and tourism industries in China.
42 There were many regional surveys on this topic during roughly the same period.
43 www.was h ing t onp o st.com/a rts- e ntert a inme nt/i nte r act i ve/2 021/j ack-w hit t en-
atopol is-for-edoua rd-g lissa nt/.
4 4 www.nybooks.com/a rticles/2 022/0 4/21/t he-i mag i nat ive-i mperat ive- author ity-
and-f reedom-jed-perl/.
45 Milovan Djilas, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, An Atlantic Press
Book Published by Thames & Hudson London, 1957.
47 www.shigebao.com/html/a rticles/hui/3181.html.
48 www.moma.org/col lect ion/works/114901?sov_ refer rer=theme&theme _ id=5156.
49 Wu Hung, Transience, Chinese Experiment Art at the end of the Twenties Century,
University of Chicago Press, 2005.
50 www.moma.org/col lect ion/works/114901?sov_ refer rer=theme&theme _ id=5156.
51 www.namoc.org/cbjy/cbw/qks/qk2007_ 25 44/qk200702/2 013 03/t 20130319_177
370.htm.
52 www.namoc.org/x wzx/x w/2008/200805/t 20080515 _175693_mobi le.htm (trav-
eling exhibition from Tate Britain in 2018).
53 www.namoc.org/z sjs/z lzx/201304/t 20130418_ 224906.htm.
54 Fan became the President of CAFA in 2014.
56 www.namoc.org/x wzx/zt/x inmeiti/.
57 www.cafa.com.cn/cn/news/detai ls/216221.
58 www.namoc.org/Videos/spzy/z lhd/2018/201809/t 20180921_ 320717.htm (.
59 www.wenm i ng.cn/specia ls/z xdj/x jp/x jpjh/201510/t 20151015_ 2908718.shtml.
60 www.cf lac.org.cn/zgwl/wljj/201111/t 20111103 _16521.html.
61 The term province is used instead of naming all the different types of government
administrative structures.
62 www.caanet.org.cn/Member.mx?id=4.
63 Based on the interviews with members.
64 www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/moe_776/s3109/200612/t 20061204 _79731.html.
65 https://events.cafa.edu.cn/2021dsxx jy/n l/?N=177.
66 Milovan Djilas, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, An Atlantic Press
Book Published by Thames & Hudson London, 1957.
67 https://k knews.cc/cultu re/4mk9eav.html.
68 https://k knews.cc/cultu re/4mk9eav.html.
69 http://bbs.laiwu.net/read-htm-t id-5949599-page-1–1.html.
70 http://bbs.laiwu.net/read-htm-t id-5949599-page-1–1.html.
73 www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/moe_776/s3109/200711/t 20071116 _79730.html.
74 The Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, founded in 1956, was a stand-a lone uni-
versity, and was merged into Tsinghua University in 1999 (www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/
A03/s7050/199909/t19990922 _162140.html).
75 www.technolog y rev iew.com/2013/01/02/180723/chi nas- challenge/.
76 www.xinhuanet.com/2021– 06/19/c _1127579010.htm.
77 https://r ad i ich i na.com/ beiji ng- a rt- student-punished-for-putt i ng- d ildo- on-f lagp
ole/.
78 www.cafa museum.org/exhibit/deta il/643.
79 www.cafa museum.org/exhibit/deta il/627.
84 www.news.cn/politics/cpc20/2022–10/25/c _1129079429.htm.
86 In 2018 the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism were combined as the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
88 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jdt ai/201803/1f5730 f28dc9421294bda52865b0bd 5f.shtml.
8 9 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jsbzn/202203/23e6552bad1a477da57d5d13ec206977.shtml.

90 The grant making had been more generous from 2014 to 2020. In 2014, there was
no upper limit for the applications of this category. During 2015 to 2020 applicants
who intended to create oil paintings and sculptures could apply for a grant up to
RMB 200,000 per person. Applicants who planned to create prints and photographs
could apply for up to RMB 150,000 per person. The limit has decreased to RMB
100,000 for visual and performing art applications in Category 5 since 2022. CNAF
suspended its grant making in 2021 due to the outbreak of the pandemic. In 2021
CNAF continued to support art projects approved in 2020.
91 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jsbzn/202203/52149dea503c41ea863bb279689a53b6.shtml.
92 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jsbzn/202203/4fe683f6ebcf4c8db0 0991a72a 37662c.shtml.
93 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jsbzn/202203/c48584 4581ab4e89aa 579db634f5bed3.shtml.
94 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jhzc/zc_l ist.shtml.
95 www.sohu.com/a/226440485_152615.
96 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jsbzn/j jsbzn_list.shtml.
97 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/202203/5a3d9fcb2385445c9a4708c5b2622e75.shtml.
98 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jdt ai/201411/99eef4b6d1f946278a1832f4c959b403.shtml.
99 According to CNAF’s funding evaluation report released in 2016, the final number
of projects funded was 393.
100 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/202203/085f080d0bfe4d ae966a213949f32470.shtml.
101 The amount in USD was calculated by the author based on the exchange rate in
July 2022.
102 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jdt ai/202207/0c0725bcd696436e89367265984aa50e.shtml.
103 The name was later changed to 对话列奥纳多·达·芬奇／第四届艺术与科学国际作
品展.
104 www.tanchinese.com/a rchives/museum/20726.
105 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/201607/d 54fd58de0294c768a73a4a520742a 58.shtml.
106 http://a rt.china.cn/zixun/2018– 02/08/content_40220586.htm.
107 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/201706/e6d53310f 72d4be69173e73b3ef b83f2.shtml.
108 www.ce.cn/cultu re/gd/202112/17/t 20211217_37180653.shtml.
109 www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelea se/202201/t 20220118_1826649.html.
110 www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelea se/202201/t 20220118_1826649.html.
111 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/202203/085f080d0bfe4d ae966a213949f32470.shtml.
112 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/202107/fee90acff 5dc4d8b9182d3049eb92e27.shtml.
113 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/j jdt ai/201509/b8737a176ec746be93e800511f 3af 323.shtml.
114 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/202012/4c9463bbe46b4087aa967978cf febde7.shtml.
115 Based on the calculation on the information released by CNAF. The outbreak of
COVID-19 was a factor that contributed to the decrease over the following years.
116 www.cnaf.cn/g jysj jw/tztg/201812/d fd8da0bc045463db09a30c2905f62e7.shtml.
118 https://i.cafa.edu.cn/sub_va ii/vaii/c/?si=431&N=2239.
119 www.meipian.cn/2emat323.
120 www.guggenheim.org/exh ibit ion/count ryside.
121 The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism was consolidated as the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2018.
123 www.moj.gov.cn/pub/sf bgw/f lfg gz/f lfg gzbmgz/200409/t 20040901_143692.html.
124 www.scio.gov.cn/x wf bh/g bwxwf bh/x wf bh/w hb/D ocume nt/1467157/1467
157.htm.
1 25 www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2016/content_ 5070760.htm.
128 Anecdotally, I have heard that 90 days is mostly followed today.
129 美术品经营管理办法, 文化部1994年11月14日发布, 失效日期2004年7月1日.
131 https://z wgk.mct.gv.cn/z fxxgk ml/g hjh/202012/t 20201204_906372.html.
132 www.gov.cn/g uowuyuan/2018–03/17/content_5275116.htm.
133 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/g hjh/202012/t 20201204_906372.html.
134 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/c yfz/202106/P020210607537541941661.pdf.
138 www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020–11/03/c _1126693699.htm.
139 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/c yfz/202106/t 20210607_925033.html.
140 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/w ysy/202107/P020210713631282873173.pdf.
145 Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the National Culture Digital Strategy.
147 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/c yfz/202106/P020210607537541941661.pdf.
152 www.news.cn/politics/cpc20/2022–10/25/c _1129079429.htm.
153 www.artdesign.org.cn/a rticle/v iew/id/71850.
155 www.qstheory.cn/zhuanqu/2021–06/02/c _1127522386.htm.
PART III
Independent Artists Finding

Creative Space
7
BEIJING, CAFA AND SOCIETAL
ENERGY
Prelude
On August 31, 2022, one day after the politburo of the Central Committee of
the CCP announced that the 20th Party Congress would be held on October
16, 2022, the National Social Science Fund (NSSF) released the list of research
projects on arts and culture they planned to fund that year.1 All the arts and cul-
ture projects endorsed by the NSSF in 2022, the most prestigious state funding
body supporting scholarly research in China, were required to fit into the ideo-
logical guidelines of the Party. There were over 200 research projects to be headed
by scholars from 145 leading universities across the country. The wide spectrum
of topics covered Chinese traditional paintings, porcelain, design, antiquities,
film, music, dance, theatre, virtual reality, digital products, online art critics,
and museum studies. However, not a single research project was dedicated to the
latest creative movement, Chinese contemporary art.
In fact, the avoidance of the topic is far from a coincidence. Since 2013,
the NSSF has funded over 2,100 arts and culture research projects broadly
encompassing Chinese and Western culture including visual and performing arts
disciplines. Each project received funding between RMB 150,000 (USD 21,700)
and RMB 300,000 (USD 43,500) directly from the central government. The
fiscal commitment over the past decade has been significant. Nevertheless, sys-
tematic research on Chinese and Western contemporary art has been excluded
(except for a few projects) from this highest level of state funding of scholarship
in the arts and culture sector. Since the 1980s, the NSSF has been providing
funding for arts and culture research projects, an endeavor that has been ongoing
continuously for nearly four decades. From 1983 to 2012, the NSSF funded
over 1,400 research projects on visual and performing arts.2 During those three
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-10
174 Independent Artists Finding Creative Space
decades, research projects on Chinese and Western contemporary art had a con-
sistent presence in NSSF’s funding.
Although the number of arts and culture research projects funded by the
NSSF since 2013 substantially surpassed the tally in the previous three decades,
the projects dedicated to researching Chinese and Western contemporary art
mostly disappeared over the past ten years. The situation has occurred in parallel
with the absence of Chinese and Western contemporary art exhibitions at the
National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) during the same period. The con-
text of the phenomenon was analyzed in depth in Part II of the book. Given the
increasingly stringent ideological supervision of the Party on the arts and culture
sector, this trend is likely to continue over the next decade and will indubitably
have a profound impact on contemporary art development in China.
In an environment with firm ideological control and state-f unded institutions
that are reluctant to systematically dedicate resources to researching Chinese
contemporary art or recognizing it as part of official Chinese art history, how
can artists justify the academic value of their creations? This is a fundamental
challenge contemporary artists in China face today.
As described in Part I of the book, from the early 1990s to the first decade
of the 21st century, the blooming of the market for Chinese contemporary art,
first internationally and then domestically, helped draw a considerable amount
of attention to the discipline. As a result of the two decades of market expan-
sion, Chinese contemporary art as a stand-a lone discipline has been widely
researched and written about by many scholars living in the West. Some of
these international scholars include Wu Hung at the University of Chicago
and Gao Minglu at the University of Pittsburgh. Some domestic scholars have
produced non-state underwritten archives and publications on Chinese con-
temporary art history, including Zhu Qingsheng from Peking University and
Lv Peng, an art critic who is co-founder and president of a private online
university in China, L-A rt University. However, domestically it is yet to be
broadly recognized by the state system as an independent discipline worthy of
inclusion in China’s art history textbooks.
Meanwhile, despite a more rigid environment of ideological supervision
over the past decade, the production of Chinese contemporary art has become
more diversified, mature and contemplative. For contemporary artists residing
in China who have achieved both domestic acclaim and international recogni-
tion, how they are able to retain an experimental spirit, navigate the complex
art ecosystem and at the same time enhance the scholarly conviction of their
creation deserves closer examination. Undeniably these artists have been prac-
ticing in a completely differently environment from their Western peers. When
facing an increasingly oppressive censorship environment, how they manage to
find breathing space for artistic freedom is a testament to their creative energy
and wisdom.
This section (Part III) of the book analyzes the artistic maturation of five
artists who live in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the three major art hubs
Beijing, CAFA and Societal Energy 175
in China. It aims to provide insight into the future prospect of Chinese contem-
porary art development. The artists featured in Part III of the book, though only
a small portion of the contemporary artist population in China who do not rely
on the state system for their livelihood, nevertheless exemplify how art creation
in China has entered a new stage of evolution.
All five artists have received scholarly recognition both in China and over-
seas. Some have achieved a higher degree of success in the art market than
others. But their accomplishments in the art market have not jeopardized their
intellectual pursuit of artistic creation. The creative work of the five artists
involves the interrogation of critical issues facing society. All of them have
encountered different degrees of censorship challenges. Examples include a
video work not being able to exhibit unless certain parts were deleted or
revised, an artwork not permitted to leave the country for an exhibition at a
state museum in a European country, and an artwork pulled out of a group
exhibition followed by the entire exhibition being shut down and investigated.
Nevertheless, the censorship experiences have not discouraged them from
continuing to create the types of art they believe in.
In a way, the tenacity and resilience of these artists ref lects their artistic phil-
osophy and maturity. This persistence to express their creativity despite the
tough censorship environment has brought their artworks a unique type of
vitality. Different from the Chinese contemporary artworks of the 1970s and the
early 1980s, which often carried an element of direct political confrontation, the
artworks by these artists bring multilayered energy, higher degrees of abstraction
and a more contemplative quality. They reveal that there is a distinct type of cre-
ative exploration occurring amongst artists living in China.
In the midst of the Party’s endeavor to achieve the “Great rejuvenation of
the Chinese nation,” this new stage of exploration is how some artists in China
defend their artistic integrity by creating a different, authentic cultural landscape.
Artworks Born Out of the Pandemic

In the spring of 2022, the world entered the third year of the pandemic. While
international travel in the US and Europe mostly resumed, one of the most
cosmopolitan cities in China, Shanghai, an urban city with a population of over
28 million, experienced one of the harshest lockdowns, lasting over two months
due to an outbreak of a new variant of COVID-19. All public transit ceased,
commutes across the Yangtze River were terminated, residents were prohibited
from leaving their homes and for some time, food shortages were a pressing issue.
The lockdown in Shanghai brought a considerable challenge to the studio of
the Beijing-based artist Xu Bing. The manager of Xu Bing’s studio in Beijing,
Xu Yi, also the artist’s brother, was leading a team in a factory in a suburb of
Shanghai in March to produce components for Gravitational Arena (Figure 7.1),
a colossal installation conceptionally created by Xu Bing, a new work by the
artist commissioned by the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai. It would be
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Bing, installation view of Gravitational Arena, 2022, in Exhibition Hall X of the
FIGURE 7.1 Xu
Museum of Art, Pudong, Shanghai. ©Xu Bing Studio
the center piece of the artist’s monographic exhibition at the museum and one
of the largest artworks that the artist’s studio had ever created. Over 30 meters
in height, it would occupy five stories of the center rotunda of the museum.
Because of the strict lockdown in Shanghai, Xu Yi and his team had to reside in
the factory for two months and were not permitted to leave the site.
In mid-August, after the lockdown was gradually lifted, Gravitational Arena was
finally unveiled to the public. As one of the most significant works created by Xu
Bing, the installation, overwhelming in its physical scale and visual appearance,
incorporated the artist’s philosophical contemplation about humanity’s fragile
relationship with the world, the deep conf licts between various cultures, and
our limited ability to perceive the universe. As described in the statement issued
by the artist’s studio:
As the viewers enter the exhibition hall, they are immediately greeted
with a giant “textual vortex” comprised of Square Word Calligraphy…the
f lat texts are stretched and pulled from the third and fourth f loors of the
museum, dipping all the way to the base level, visually penetrating through
the giant mirror surface on the base level where the texts conjoin....
Standing beneath the work, the viewers can only access the back of the
texts. The spatial elongation and layerings render these texts illegible.... As
the contorted texts slowly adjust to the viewing perspective with the ascen-
sion to the higher levels, reaching the top f loor, the viewers are finally
faced with the front of the text but still remain withheld from it.
The entire Gravitational Arena consists of 1,600 characters from Xu Bing’s

Square Word Calligraphy, a system of writing English he invented in the early
1990s. In the Square Word Calligraphy system, English letters are grouped into
words using a unique construction that has the appearance of Chinese calligraphy.
In the installation Gravitational Arena, these Square Word Calligraphy made of
aluminum alloy were connected through metal wires that were stretched into a
variety of dimensions to create an optical illusion resembling gravitational forces.
The original English text was based on the writing by Ludwig Wittgenstein on
the problem of “seeing” and viewing “an aspect,” including the following quote:
The concept of a representation of what is seen, like that of a copy, is very

elastic, and so together with it is the concept of what is seen. The two are
intimately connected. (Which is not to say that they are alike.)
Xu Bing in an interview with local Chinese press3 explained that the unique,
vast five-story rotunda space would impose a substantial challenge for any artist.
Through his decades of artistic practice, he has realized that such spaces, though
at first may appear difficult to utilize, actually can stimulate an artist to expand
their mind. Based on the computer rendering of the space during the creative
process, he concluded that the only vantage point from which a visitor could see
the full picture of the body of the text was through a remote angle high in the
sky above the largest surface of the installation. In other words, an angle that was
unapproachable for any of the visitors at the museum. The installation had a mes-
merizing visual appeal, which naturally drew visitors’ attention and presented
them with an optical illusion. However, no matter how hard visitors tried, by
roaming through different f loors and peeking at various angles, they could never
grasp the full view of the entire text and thus could not understand the funda-
mental meaning of the literature.
Xu Bing’s artistic creation superficially appeared to be an extension of his
Square Word Calligraphy series, but actually offered viewers a more dramatic
physical experience of interacting with the script system that he invented.
Ultimately, it ref lects the artist’s contemplation of the world and the increasing
conf licts during the lengthy pandemic. In the spring of 2020, Xu Bing was
quarantined in his studio in New York for months when the outbreak of COVID-
19 reached its worst period in the city, later he found himself locked down during
the first half of 2022 when he was back in Beijing.
In the same interview, Xu Bing revealed that the work expressed his feeling
about how torn and dysfunctional the world is, and that a solution does not seem
to exist.4 Indeed, Gravitational Arena elicits a complex viewing experience for us.
It fosters intrigue by creating a curiosity to immerse ourselves in the work, to
understand it, and be frustrated by its rejection of allowing us to explore it fur-
ther. The work seems to have portrayed the state of the world unfolding during
the pandemic—an indescribable gravitational pull tearing the world apart, and
despite our efforts to understand the issues, the answers will never be revealed.
Consequently, we constantly feel lost in the process of searching and interpreting.
As Gravitational Arena implies, due to our limitations, we might be at a vantage
point where we will never find a solution ourselves, and even worse, nor will we
identify suitable language to describe our frustrating inability to communicate or
to obtain solutions. This is the eternal reality that we are facing.
Perhaps our complex feelings triggered by turbulent events, indescribable in
any language, can be best captured by artistic expression. Or the deepest disrup-
tion to our societal order stimulates artists to create some of their most captiv-
ating works of art.
Three months before Xu Bing’s Gravitational Arena was installed in Shanghai,
Tokyo Gallery, one of the first contemporary art galleries in China, celebrated
the 20th anniversary of the founding of its branch in the 798 Art District in
Beijing. To commemorate the gallery’s two decades of art programs at the city’s
contemporary art hub, it organized a group exhibition of seventeen Chinese
contemporary artists whose careers had crossed paths with the gallery.5 The
group show under the theme of “Overlaid,” curated by the acclaimed curator
Feng Boyi, took place from early May to the end of June 2022. During the two
months, the seventeen artists were subdivided into six groups and the artworks
were installed in a manner that ref lected the theme. The Beijing-based artist Li
Songsong created a new artwork called True Love (Figure 7.2) for the exhibition.
FIGURE 7.2 True Love, 2022, Oil Color, Polyethylene, 240 x 240 x 15 cm.
© Li Songsong
It is a large-scale circular installation with a diameter of 240 cm (nearly 8 ft.). It

consists of 342 sealed bags that weigh 200 kilograms in total, each containing
a dark red or white mix of oil paints and polyethylene, hung on the white wall
of the gallery forming a complete circle. The sealed bags were installed piece
by piece, layer over layer, over five days. Before each sealed bag was hung on
the wall by the artist, he held it in his hands for a duration of time to form and
squeeze the paints in the bag into a precise shape. For Li Songsong, the installa-
tion process was not unsimilar to a ritual. Once the work was completed, from
a distance, the circular structure showed a massive white exclamation point that
grew out of the thick red round background.
Visibly, the installation appeared to be a minimalist-style punctuation mark
with two colors sharply contrasting each other. Deep down, this symbol has a
profound meaning for those residents in the PRC who lived through the pan-
demic. It has grown into their psyche and the sight of the sign would immedi-
ately trigger a sense of conditioned ref lex. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in
early 2020, a tremendous amount of news sources about the pandemic, either
on the virus itself, the vaccine, or the information about how people in China
suffered during the outbreaks were censored and removed from the internet and
social media platforms such as WeChat (the main source for news and informa-
tion in China). Whenever a piece of news or op-ed was deleted by the govern-
ment censors on WeChat a rendering of a white exclamation point on a red,
circular background would appear.
Accompanying the installation, Li Songsong wrote:
True Love is an exploration of the qualitative changes that occur at a psy-

chological level from repetitive language. As Roland Barthes pointed
out: “nothing is left to suggestion, to divination: for a thing to be known, it
must be spoken; but also, once it is spoken, even very provisionally, it is true.”
In a way, Li Songsong’s installation, True Love, a title that implies Barthes’

quote in his A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, offers an ambiguous and ironic f lavor
to this visually enthralling work. He tackles a topic similar to that of Xu Bing’s
Gravitational Arena, describing our endless efforts to perceive our surrounding
world and our inability to communicate with it or fully understand it. As
onlookers, we are at once captivated and at the same time enslaved by it. For
every audience member who has relied on WeChat for updates on the global
situation caused by the pandemic, the white exclamation point on a red back-
ground represents a crucial piece of information that had been created, circulated
and then abruptly vanished. Removed by a surveillance system that constantly
monitors every civilian’s movement in the virtual world and filters any written
expression that, at that moment, is considered slightly dissatisfactory. The viewer
of information has become an information object themselves. This symbol is the
epitome of a process that draws in a viewer’s curiosity while at the same time
hands out a punishment for having such curiosity.
Paradoxically, the work’s enormous round shape, ref lective texture and multi-
layered uneven surface created by materials in sealed bags are so enchanting
to look at that we can hardly help but feel entranced by its effect. The dra-
matic contrast of dark red and pure white, and the different shapes of paints
that generate sculpture-like qualities throughout the dense constellation of the
sealed bags, create a powerful visual force suspended on the wall. This visual
force naturally brings to mind Cy Twombly’s painting The Fire that Consumes
All Before It, one of his Fifty Days at Iliam series in 1978, now in the permanent
collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.6 John Bernard Myers, writing on
the subject of Twombly’s painting style, seems to have offered us a metaphor-
ical passage to understand Li Songsong’s work. “It convinces us that we are in
the presence of intelligence and a rare imagination which give mental processes
visual concreteness.” 7
The immense visual pleasure and the poignant agony caused by the work
create a psychological contradiction. And yet, an onlooker who has yet to experi-
ence this familiar symbol of censorship would not grasp the juxtaposition of both
being attracted to and alienated by the artwork’s visual energy.
Most importantly, the work cannot be simply defined as an abstract or a fig-
urative work of art, it is neither and both. Depending on which virtual environ-
ments the viewer had lived in before they faced the work, their reactions could
be drastically different. As Li Songsong explained
How to define “abstract” or “non-abstract,” undoubtedly is too vast a topic

to discuss. For me, it is not easy to provide clarity on the subject. You can
say that all things are concrete or all things are abstract. This depends on
how we identify the boundaries, which often are not reliable. You can say
that those indiscernible factors can be identified by the creators themselves.
Ultimately, the creators live in a complex system of suggestion.
According to a public briefing by the Cyberspace Administration of China in

August 2022, since 2019 the Administration had “deleted more than 20 billion
pieces of undesirable information and nearly 1.4 billion (online) accounts” to
create a “clean internet environment” for Chinese citizens.8 For the people in
the country who use the internet, the symbol of a white exclamation point on
a red backdrop is the product of ubiquitous government surveillance, which
has been weaved into the basic fabric of their daily lives, providing a constant
reminder that what they see is an abstraction of information. The emblem,
which represents an ephemeral existence of the information perceived as
undesirable by the censors, has been imprinted on the collective memory of
internet users in China and become part of public consciousness. The deep
irony implied by the artwork is that for any observer who had an immediate
subconscious reaction to the work, interpreting it as a symbol of information
censored, they understand that they are victims of the omnipresent surveil-
lance and censorship system.
As Javier Marías once commented:
I believe Faulkner said, striking a match in the middle of the night in the
middle of a field doesn’t permit you to see anything more clearly, but to
see more clearly the darkness that surrounds you. Literature does that more
than anything else. It doesn’t properly illuminate things, but like the match
it lets you see how much darkness there is.9
CAFA, Two Generations of Artists

The two artists, Xu Bing (born in 1955) and Li Songsong (born in 1973), eighteen
years apart, both grew up in Beijing and both have their art studios in the city.
Other than the fact that both were trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts
(CAFA), their artistic creation could not be more dissimilar. Xu Bing believes
that his creative philosophy, his contemplation of an artist’s interaction with soci-
etal energy and his indirect way of artistic expression are deeply indebted to his
training in the printmaking department of CAFA. He believes that had he been
enrolled in the oil painting department of the Academy, he might have learned
very little about creative thinking.
Li Songsong, on the contrary, had long aspired to be enrolled in the oil painting
department of CAFA when he began studying at the high school affiliated with
CAFA at the age of fifteen. His training in oil painting under the renowned artist
Liu Xiaodong had a strong impact on his early artistic evolution. Although the
later stages of his creative style deviated substantially from that of Liu Xiaodong,
oil paints and the unique texture of the material continuously play a crucial role
in his pictorial construction.
At first glance, Xu Bing and Li Songsong have experienced distinctive tra-
jectories of artistic development and deploy very different mediums in their
creative processes. For Xu Bing, script has been a tool and medium that he
has used time and again throughout his creative career, either based on his
own invention, the Book from the Sky and Square Word Calligraphy, for instance,
or existing symbols like emojis for the Book from the Ground.10 The original
source of inspiration for Li Songsong’s paintings often comes from existing
photographs of dramatic events at the historical junctures in China and
overseas from the 20th and 21st centuries; for example the public mourning
of Chairman Mao’s funeral at Tiananmen Square in September 1976 and
Yeltsin’s challenge of Gorbachev at the Russian Federation Parliament in
Moscow in August 1991. While Xu Bing does not like to depict human fig-
ures because he feels that they are “too physical and too tangible,” many of Li
Songsong’s paintings have been centered around turbulent human events and
how humans have shaped societal predicaments.
However, one cannot help but sense certain commonalities in their cre-
ative philosophies. To begin with, both artists have a deep understanding of
ancient Chinese culture and a discerning observation of modern Chinese society.
Secondly, through constant intellectual exploration, both artists are able to dem-
onstrate in their artworks how they perceive the volatile human existence and
its engagement with the past and the present reality. Furthermore, both have an
uncanny ability to capture such perceptions in an abstract way, filtering their
own emotions and presenting the challenge of deciphering the artists’ perception
back to the onlookers. In order to fully grasp their artworks, understanding their
methodical creative process is as crucial as contemplating the complexity of the
completed creation.
As Xu Bing explained “I know that this creative energy comes from the energy
of society. This is very important. Because our society is infinitely changing, this
state of infinite change must be the inspiration for thinking in new ways.”
Despite the distinctive medium and approaches to their creative process, Xu
Bing and Li Songsong’s artworks both are manifestations of each artist’s contem-
plation on how artmaking could have a profound and philosophical interaction
with a drastically changing Chinese society. This has brought their artworks an
allure that has stood the test of time. To further explain, we will examine a few
of their most quintessential works that showcase each artist’s creative evolution
over the past few decades.
Beijing, 1980s
Starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s the PRC went through a
period of ref lecting upon the historical mistakes of the Cultural Revolution and
welcoming and adopting aspects of Western culture. As Wu Hung, a professor
at the University of Chicago, wrote: “Contemporary Chinese art in the post-
Cultural Revolution era has emerged as a constant interaction and negotiation”
between several traditions and realms, including “a highly politicized official art
directly under the sponsorship of the party…(and) a vanguard Chinese experi-
mental art that consciously tries to link itself to various forms of Western mod-
ernist and postmodernist art.”11
Xu Bing witnessed the turbulent decade of the Cultural Revolution during
his adolescence. His father was an intellectual working at Peking University.
When the Cultural Revolution broke out, his father was one of the first targets
of the endless struggle sessions initiated by the Red Guards. Xu Bing still has
vivid memories of the numerous violent ransacks by the Red Guards of his home
in Beijing and his constant fever, insomnia, and headaches during his childhood
caused by the traumatic experience. “Having those house ransacks and being
discriminated as children because we were from an intellectual family was part
of our ‘normal’ daily life at the time.”
He recounted the experience of his childhood when the Red Guards broke
into his house for the first ransack. On that day, the rain was pouring in
Beijing. Having never seen anything like this before, he escaped from his
home and hid in the neighborhood. He was too scared to return straight away
but waited until it was very late at night. When he got back, he did not dare
ask his parents about the details of what transpired. The whole family just
pretended that nothing special had happened that evening and it was never
discussed again. Very soon, the house-r ansacks became regular events in their
lives. During one of the house raids, Xu Bing was sick, lying in bed with a
high fever. The Red Guards stormed into the family’s home and smashed
everything they saw. When one of the Red Guards inspected the books on
the bookshelf to ensure that there were no “dangerous” publications, he
stepped onto the bed next to the bookshelf where Xu Bing was lying, he then
proceeded to step on Xu Bing’s little head while searching the bookshelf.
The Xu family’s residential complex was full of intellectuals working for
Peking University. Many neighbors committed suicide or had mental disorders
as a result of the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, the tenacity and optimism of
his parents helped the family sustain the harrowing decade.
In 1977, Xu Bing enrolled in the printmaking department of CAFA. At the
Academy, he learned all types of printmaking techniques. Most importantly,
the process of printmaking enabled him to realize the creative philosophies
which played an instrumental role in his artistic career. On the one hand, he
fully recognized the beauty of the pluralistic nature of printmaking. This con-
cept, which was further reinforced after he relocated to the United States in
the early 1990s and inf luenced by the works of Andy Warhol, laid the foun-
dation for his future creations including the Square Word Calligraphy. On the
other hand, unlike oil paintings, where artists directly apply oil paints on a
canvas, the techniques of printmaking, etching and lithography for instance,
often result in the final artworks being completed in an indirect way. This
approach inspired Xu Bing to contemplate his artistic creation through an
indirect methodology. The Gravitational Arena fully demonstrates such
characteristics; for example, the text by Wittgenstein constructed through the
Square Word Calligraphy, the mirror that created the ref lection of the scripts
and the unreachable viewing angle to read the text in its entirety. Although
the mediums Xu Bing works with during the latest stage of his artistic career
have increased in complexity, his creative philosophy has stayed consistent
throughout his career.
In 1981 when Xu Bing graduated from CAFA, due to his exceptional aca-
demic performance, he was chosen by the Academy to teach classical drawing at
the school. At the time, Beijing was one of the hubs for the experimental Chinese
avant-g arde art movement, which included important groups and events like the
April Photo Society12 and the Stars Art Exhibition.13 Young faculty members at
CAFA freed from the constraints of the Cultural Revolution constantly met and
held intense conversations and debates exploring critical thinking for contem-
porary art. Xu Bing actively visited these exhibitions and attended the debates
at the gatherings. Living amidst radical ideological changes, Xu Bing felt both
inspired and confused about how he should take his artistic creation to the next
level. The turning point occurred in 1984 when he visited a North Korean
socialist realism painting exhibition held at NAMOC.14 One of the paintings
portrayed a group of peasant workers surrounding Kim Il Sung, smiling with

their faces blushing. As admitted by Xu Bing later:
Standing in the gallery (of NAMOC), I immediately realized that there

was something wrong with this type of (socialist realism) art we have.
Because it (the exhibition) had art that was clearly more problematic than
ours (the socialist realism art in China). It was like a mirror that ref lected
and exposed your own problems. At the time, I thought that I absolutely
needed to leave this old art and create new art. But what the new art was,
I didn’t know.
While Xu Bing tried to find his own unique way of creating “new art,” he
also realized that after attending countless experimental art events in Beijing, he
had lost sight of traditional things. During this period of creative exploration,
he began ref lecting deeply on ancient Chinese books and culture. Gradually he
formulated the idea of making his own Chinese-style book to express his feelings.
He spent countless hours at the library of Peking University, where his mother
worked at the time, reading ancient Chinese manuscripts and dissecting the
Chinese scripts in the books. His groundbreaking Book from the Sky (Figure 7.3)
series was created at this juncture of exploring a distinctive artistic language. The
artwork includes a set of books produced by traditional Chinese printing and
book-binding techniques and a wooden box to hold the book set.
The Book from the Sky took Xu Bing four years (1987 to 1991) to make. As
described by Liu Zhengyi in 2018:
There are more than 4,000 characters printed in this treatise, all of which
are invented to resemble real Chinese characters deliberately, in an exquisite
way, but indeed are some unfathomable pseudo-characters devoid of any
real meaning and cannot be interpreted in the standard method and regular
logic which we usually use to interpret the real Chinese characters.... Xu
Bing actually generates these characters by choosing a number of funda-
mental radicals or strokes (一, 丨, 丿, ㇏, 乚) from the Chinese writing
system as the basic building blocks, recombining them in diverse ways,
within an intrinsic logic, creatively. 15
Today the Book from the Sky has been recognized as one of the masterpieces of
Chinese art in the 20th century16 and has been broadly collected by renowned
Western institutions including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art and Princeton University Art Museum. As explained by Jerome Silbergeld,
Professor of Chinese Art History, Director, Tang Center for East Asian Art,
Princeton University:
Using a font style from the fifteenth-century Ming dynasty but with refer-
ence to still earlier printed styles, characters are carved as separate blocks and
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FIGURE 7.3 Xu Bing, books of Book from the Sky, 1987–91, boxed set of 4-volume woodblock printed books,
Vol. 1: 46 x 30 x 2.75 cm; Vol. 2: 46 x 30 x 2.5 cm; Vol. 3: 46 x 30 x 2 cm; Vol. 4: 46 x 30 x 2.25 cm (all closed).
©Xu Bing Studio
then arranged in racks, two racks of characters per sheet. Each sheet is folded
to make two pages; there are nine columns per page and up to seventeen
characters per column. Each double-page sheet is folded along the centerline
of the print rack and stitch-bound. Six-hole stitching, a blank paper lining
folded into each double-page, covered corners, and blue-dyed volume covers
all derive from traditional Chinese bookbinding of the highest quality.17
It took Xu Bing two years to design and hand carve the pseudo-characters
based on the Chinese writing system. The printing, fine-tuning and production
process took another two years. During the lengthy process, the stage of designing
and hand carving the pseudo-characters in particular, he was completely absorbed
in the intensive creation. As recalled by the artist’s sister and studio manager in
New York, Xu Hong, at one point their parents began to worry if their son had
gone mad. Despite the bewilderment of the people around him, from the begin-
ning, Xu Bing had a very clear idea of the creative journey he was pursuing. He
believed that it would be an indecipherable book. However, the look and feel of
the book-set had to be precisely that of ancient Chinese manuscripts to create a
conf licting juxtaposition between the content and the appearance:
I had to make this book feel like a particularly formal and elaborate ancient
manuscript. Because it would be a work of absurdity, and thus it must have
a meticulously formal appearance. The more serious the work appears, the
more absurd it becomes, and the more artistic power the work conveys.
Ultimately what he wanted to achieve, was a book-set that “lures us in by its

appearance of lecturing about serious things, but at the same time it denies our
access.”
Years later after Xu Bing moved to the United States, the Book from the
Sky became one of his most acclaimed works, which likely contributed to his
achievement of winning the prestigious MacArthur genius award in 1999.18
As one of Xu Bing’s most celebrated artworks, the Book from the Sky has been
written about and analyzed by numerous Western and Chinese scholars. Often
it is interpreted as a political statement from the late 1980s. Silbergeld described
the work as “an ‘abuse of language,’ a reminder of how language has already been
abused by those in control of it, and as a strike against those who have violated
the written word through modern political propaganda.”19
The unique period when the work was created might have given art critics
an impression that the work is the artist’s interrogation of Chinese tradition, his
rebellion against political propaganda, or his ref lection on the future of Chinese
culture at the important historical juncture after the Cultural Revolution. In
retrospect, from a philosophical level, what the work implies is not different from
that of Xu Bing’s Gravitational Arena created in 2022. It ref lects on our inability
to interpret the world based on our existing framework of knowledge, and our
limitation of perceiving and reconciling with the reality created by ourselves.
Throughout history, the rules and frameworks created by humans have ensnared
us, limiting our ability to venture out to understand an unexplored territory. The
indecipherability of the Book from the Sky precisely ref lects our constrained capacity
to expand our knowledge. After Xu Bing’s work was created, from time to time,
scholars who wanted to challenge the artist examined the content of the book
thoroughly. They tried to ascertain if any of the pseudo-characters in the work had
ever been used in history. The numerous endeavors never yielded any results. In a
way, these scholars’ interaction with the work epitomizes the humor and intellec-
tual wisdom of the creation. The book’s continuous rejection of any meaningful
interpretation of the content is a manifestation of its otherness against our existing
cognitive abilities. It is like a visually appealing hand-painted door on a sealed brick
wall. Regardless of how much a spectator is attracted by the appearance of the door
and wants to open it, there is no doorknob, no key. An entrance for exploration
simply does not exist. Whoever attempts to open the door will inevitably be on a
quixotic quest.
Although the Book from the Sky and Gravitational Arena were created 30 years
apart, the underlying critical thinking remained consistent. Xu Bing’s quotation
of Wittgenstein’s writing in the Gravitational Arena offers us a deeper level of
understanding of his Book from the Sky.
As the renowned Chinese writer Yan Lianke commented during his inter-
view with Asia Society’s publication China File in September 2022:
Realism has been unable to ref lect the reality and culture of today’s China,
in part because it is bound by traditions and rules.... The reality of life
that can be seen and felt is not the true reality. Rather, the imperceptible
spirit and soul of life constitute the real logic, foundation, and reality of
literature.20
Ref lecting on Yan Lianke’s comments, we can say that what Yan Lianke
described “the imperceptible spirit and soul of life” that constitutes the reality of
literature was also revealed in Xu Bing’s contemplation of contemporary China.
When Xu Bing was halfway through the production process, some components
of the Book from the Sky were first exhibited at NAMOC in October 1988. Soon
after, the work drew severe criticism from the art circle in China. Xu Bing was
then attacked by several mainstream art critics who deemed the work mean-
ingless. One of them described it with the Chinese idiom “ghost pounding the
wall,” which refers to a person stuck in their own thoughts.
As Xu Bing recalled later:
Major newspapers were criticizing the Book from the Sky. It became a target
of their condemnation which they felt represented the new wave of art.
Then I thought that this is pointless, so I gathered a group of people at the
Great Wall to work on this (installation Ghost Pounding the Wall).
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FIGURE 7.4 Xu Bing, Ghost pounding the Wall, 1990–1991. Mixed media installation/Ink rubbings on paper with
stones and soil. Installation view at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2014. ©Xu Bing Studio
Ghost Pounding the Wall (Figure 7.4) remains the largest installation that Xu
Bing has ever created. It was based on his idea in 1990 which explored a creative
approach to transfer an object onto a surface as if it were a print. As part of the
approach, the traditional Chinese rubbing technique,21 which involves ink and
paper, would be applied to a colossal natural object.
Rather than directly reacting to the conservative art circle’s verbal attack on
the Book from the Sky, Xu Bing welcomed and incorporated it as the title of his
new work. In May 1990, with some friends, students and local residents, Xu
Bing worked at a section of the Great Wall in Beijing. They created rubbings of a
tower of the Great Wall and some portions of the bricked wall. The total length
of the work was over one kilometer. A scaffolding structure was created by Xu
Bing and the team, who spent almost a month at the Great Wall fully immersed
in the rubbing process.
While the production process for the Book from the Sky was still ongoing,
Xu Bing’s new installation Ghost Pounding the Wall took the playful absurdity
of orthodox cultural conservatism to a new level. The two artworks undeni-
ably bear a similar creative philosophy. The artist absorbed the societal energy
around him, adopted the most traditional Chinese art-m aking methodology,
abstracted any potential meaning, and presented the task of interpretation back to
the observer. Some critics perceived the work as the artist’s “personal memento
and a critique of the monolithic isolationism of the Chinese state.”22 Others
explained that the artist “took illegibility one step further by denying the written
word completely...he eradicated the authority of the text, and therefore the pol-
itical and cultural power with which it was imbued.”23
In actuality, Ghost Pounding the Wall might have been born from the context of
the artist responding to the harsh criticism of the Book from the Sky in an indirect,
understated way. The unique historical environment, in which the work was
created, unavoidably could encourage art critics to recognize it as an artwork
that carries a strong political statement. Nevertheless, the medium, the scale and
the beauty of the work, generated by its texture and the grandeur of the Great
Wall bring us an overwhelming visual pleasure. As Dave Hickey once claimed,
beauty is first and foremost what drives us to appreciate an artwork. In Ghost
Pounding the Wall, the main medium, paper, is so light, and at the same time,
the dark, dappled texture created through the rubbing process of the Great Wall
appears so heavy, one cannot help but feel dwarfed by the work’s visual appeal
and its historical weight.
And yet, who would deny that the work offers us a new approach to per-
ceiving the Great Wall? Who would reject the fact that the awe-inspiring effect
of Ghost Pounding the Wall was created based on an object that was completely
man-made? Fundamentally, Ghost Pounding the Wall, through its enormous scale
and irresistible beauty, forces us to face our own past in both an abstract and con-
crete way. When captivated by the magnitude and monochrome beauty of the
work, are we admiring the enormity of the Great Wall, the human ambition of
the Wall’s creation, the ingenious creation of an ancient rubbing technique, or
the headstrong artistic undertaking? Or are we contemplating the tormented his-

tory of the Wall when a visual representation is taken from its surface, like a bio-
logical sample? And who exactly was the creator of the work? The designers, the
craftsmen and the stonemasons who built the Wall? Or Xu Bing and his team?
There are no simple answers to these complex questions. Again, the psycho-
logical response to the work is beyond any description of language. As Gavin
McCormick pointed out:
It is worth ref lecting that the freedom to contemplate the ancient past,
with all its enriching and challenging realities and ambiguities, with an
open mind and in the absence of warped ideological interference…cannot
be taken for granted. It is a fragile freedom.24
Through his indirect artistic approach, Xu Bing has challenged our existing
knowledge of cultural concepts, physical objects, historical narratives, and
human creation. The Great Wall was the artist’s inspiration, subject, medium,
theatre and playground. Ghost Pounding the Wall, an object as a play created by
Xu Bing at this theatre, is fundamentally a landscape painting sculpted by our
past and present reality.
In 1990 Xu Bing received a fellowship from the University of Wisconsin
Madison and subsequently moved to the United States. He lived in the US for
18 years during which period he received a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and his
artworks were broadly shown at international museums. In 2007, he accepted the
invitation by Pan Gongkai, President of CAFA at the time, to return to Beijing
to take on the role of Vice President and Professor at CAFA. Since then, his art
practice has been mostly based in the PRC. In 2013 Xu Bing saw some surveil-
lance video footage on a legal TV program and began to be intrigued by this
medium. As he recalled in an interview with Tony Ryans in 2017:
These (surveillance) images are not at all from the traditional aesthetics of
photographic composition as a starting point but have the clear purpose of
setting up the camera—to capture as much information as possible in the
frame.... I wondered at the time if anyone could put together a feature-
length film from these images, it would be very valuable.
Gradually, the idea of creating a fictional feature film with footage completely
based on existing public surveillance videos was established. At the time, it was
very challenging to acquire sufficient public surveillance footage as raw material
for a feature film. The turning point came in 2015 when an enormous amount
of surveillance footage became available for streaming on a few websites in the
PRC for free. Such resources made it possible for Xu Bing and his team to for-
mally begin producing the feature film called Dragonfly Eyes (Figure 7.5). It took
Xu Bing and his team over two years to create the film. Throughout the period,
20 computers in his studio in Beijing were operating 24/7 and continuously
newgenrtpdf
Bing, Dragonfly Eyes, 2017 (still). Video (surveillance camera footage taken from public live-streaming websites).
FIGURE 7.5 Xu
©Xu Bing Studio
searching, downloading and live-recording surveillance footage. In the end,

Dragonfly Eyes was edited based on 11,000 hours25 of footage gathered online.
The screenplay was written by poet Zhai Yongming and screenplay writer
Zhang Hanyi. It talks about a love story. A plain-looking young woman Qing
Ting (the word for Dragonf ly in Mandarin) was living in a Buddhist temple
but decided to leave the monastery. She subsequently worked at a dairy fac-
tory caring for cows. At the factory she met a young man named Ke Fan. Qing
Ting eventually left her work and traveled between cities. Ke Fan attempted to
find her by following her trail. As the narrative progresses, Ke Fan experienced
various adventures trying to find his beloved Qing Ting.
By the time the movie was completed in 2017, all websites in the PRC that
had real-time streaming of surveillance footage were permanently shut down
by the government. As a result, Dragonfly Eyes became a once-in-a-lifetime art-
work, and its creative production process cannot be expanded or replicated in
the country.
When Dragonfly Eyes was completed and screened at various international
film festivals and museums, it attracted broad attention. Ava Kofman wrote in
Art in America: “it serves as a reminder of what might happen should the govern-
ment use its vast troves of footage to spin more pernicious narratives.”26
Despite the fact that Dragonfly Eyes might have appeared to be politically
charged on the surface, deep down it is not unlike Xu Bing’s Book from the Sky or
Ghost Pounding the Wall. The work is about how the artist absorbed the societal
energy around him and used it as a medium to mirror back reality.
Meanwhile, different from the Book from the Sky and Ghost Pounding the
Wall, due to the ephemeral nature of the online streaming platforms, Dragonfly
Eyes exemplifies an artwork whose creative process can no longer be extended
or replicated by the artist. It captures a period of transition in our society. Our
thoughts are absorbed by the tragic reality captured on the surveillance cameras: a
violent fight in a convenience store, a helpless person drowning in the river, or a
harrowing traffic accident; unconsciously we are not giving our full attention to
the progress of the storyline.
The fact that Xu Bing decided to organize this astronomical volume of unfil-
tered surveillance footage into a feature story, rather than edit it into a documen-
tary about surveillance, itself generates a unique juxtaposition. Throughout the
creative process, there is a constant wrestling between the organic nature of the
surveillance footage, which recorded the real-time dramatic events outside of
anyone’s control, and the artificial storyline that the artist, the screenplay writers
and the editors tried to produce. The exhausting push and pull between the two
forces that molded the final story, define the distinctive artistic appeal of the
work. Its malleability and complexity have gone far beyond the narrative itself.
More importantly, as Colm Tóibín pointed out in The New York Review of
Books in July 2014:
How strange it must seem to historians, sociologists, and philosophers that,

after all that has happened in the world, the small matter of love, in all its
minuscule twists and turns, continues to preoccupy novelists more than,
say, the breaking of nations or the fate of the earth.27
While most of the art critics focused on the government surveillance aspect of
Dragonfly Eyes, they often ignored the fact that the film is fundamentally a love
story narrated through found images. True, the real-to-the-core nature of the
surveillance footage inevitably creates an overpowering effect, but the most fas-
cinating aspect is why Xu Bing, after collecting an enormous amount of footage,
decided to weave the materials into a love story.
Perhaps, the work ref lects the artist’s deep contemplation of the dire reality of
our society. Love, kindness and empathy appear so vulnerable and fragile amidst
the natural disasters, the violence, and the surveillance portrayed in the film.
And yet, when facing the stone-hearted surveillance cameras which can only
record tragic events, not save suffering victims, our love, kindness and empathy
are the very elements that differentiate us from machines. Ultimately, they are
what define us and enable us to defy an unsympathetic system.
1988, The High School Affiliated with CAFA

In 1988, Li Songsong, then 15 years old, was successfully admitted by the high
school affiliated with CAFA. At the time, the high school provided four years
of training on artmaking. Students who graduated from the high school were
granted a diploma which would enable them to find a job as an art worker at an
institution in the PRC. Alternatively, they could receive a fast-t racked admission
to CAFA. As an adolescent, Li Songsong was already determined to study at the
oil painting Department of CAFA and become an artist. Being an artist during
his teenage years meant being idiosyncratic, and leading an unusual life, although
the idea of a so-called unusual life was still a vague concept for him at the time.
His high school life in the late 1980s offered him significantly more excite-
ment than his orthodox education during his college years at CAFA. Such
energy partly came from the social environment in China which at that time
was voraciously absorbing Western culture. While Xu Bing immersed him-
self in dynamic artistic experiments as a young faculty at CAFA, Li Songsong
was inspired by teachers like Liu Xiaodong at the high school. These teachers
instantly became role models for aspirational future artists. It was the first time in
a generation that it was possible to create artwork merely for oneself, rather than
for a state institution.
Li Songsong was not interested in traditional Chinese art forms like ink
painting. Like many other students, he was inspired by Western arts and culture
and found traditional Chinese arts unfashionable and obsolete. Such a mentality
prevailed in the 1980s in numerous art academies across the country. Artists like
Zhang Xiaogang and Qiu Anxiong all had similar experiences. This echoed the
societal mindset during the period after the Cultural Revolution. People were
trying to correct the wrongs committed during that traumatic decade. They
developed an outward-looking eagerness, seeking new solutions for the future
of the country.
As Li Songsong recalled, what also amazed him in the late 1980s was the
library of his high school. It “unthinkably” offered students the most up-to-d ate
Western publications like Art in America and Art News. Even though the official
education in the classroom on Western art history stopped after Impressionism,
students had access to a Chinese language book called History of Western Modern
Art, which provided a brief introduction to all the major Western modern and
contemporary art schools of thought. German Expressionism was particularly
favored by many students, who were exposed to a German Expressionist exhib-
ition at NAMOC. The museum, which offered free access to the faculty and
students at CAFA’s affiliated high school, was a short walk from the high school
in the 1980s.28 The exhibition permeated with “spiritual shouting.” Paintings
with nudity by Otto Dix were on view. Drastically different from the previous
decade of conservative ideological control, “it (the imagery of Dix’s nudity
paintings) was not a problem” during this new period.
Although the school assignments followed the socialist realism style, students
were fully aware of the rebellious and vibrant societal energy surrounding them.
Popular Chinese literature by Wang Shuo and Mo Yan in the 1980s also filled
them with a liberal, rule-breaking spirit.
At the end of his freshman year of high school, the events of Tiananmen
Square came to a head. For a free-spirited adolescent, witnessing the turbulent
events left a lifelong impression on Li Songsong. Almost a quarter of a century
later, when his monographic exhibition was unveiled at Pace Gallery in London
in 2013, he recalled the experience of June 1989 in an interview with Phaidon.
com. At the time, he rode his bicycle past Tiananmen Square on a daily basis.
The dramatic events unfolded in front of his eyes. At one point, he wanted to
enter the square, but it was overf lowing with people who pushed him back. The
impact of that historical event on him was profound. “We all wanted something
new but we didn’t really know what we wanted.”29
The impact was so great that it seems impossible to summarize it in a sen-

tence or two, but I think it was very profound. You may not have realized
it at the time, but the inf luence was so deep, especially on a person when
they are growing up and at the age of 15 or 16 years old. I did not experi-
ence the Cultural Revolution, but I think that for the generation who
endured the Cultural Revolution, that kind of tremendous social upheaval,
it would cause a haunting impact. For me, (Tiananmen Square) may have
generated a similarly long-lasting impact.
The sense of the protracted inf luence of such a traumatic event followed Li
Songsong through his college years at CAFA and continues to inf luence his
artistic creation decades later. At the Academy, he found the educational envir-
onment stagnant. The socialist realism style was still a dominant force within the
Academy and the dogmatic teaching style by most of the faculty was uninspiring.
Li Songsong aspired to create a more innovative painting style. A German Neo-
Expressionism exhibition at NOMAC where Gerhard Richter paintings were
on view elicited new inspiration. Meanwhile, what he witnessed in June 1989
stimulated him to contemplate further how his creativity could have a more
profound interaction with social realities. In retrospect, he felt that most of his
peers at CAFA were obsessed with how they could develop a distinctive painting
technique or a unique style, but ultimately, these were not the most important
issues. “This (looking for different painting techniques) seemed to be tormenting
these 20-year-old students at the time, but now looking back, (I think they were)
actually thinking about the wrong things.”
What Li Songsong realized at this early stage of his career was echoed by Xu
Bing when Xu ref lected on his own artistic career:
The essence of my method for creative thinking is that the energy and new
blood come from outside the field of art, which is the main thread from
which my creation is drawn. This allows you to use various materials and
forms of expression.
Around the time Li Songsong graduated from CAFA, his paintings had
a similar style to that of Liu Xiaodong. In these paintings, the subjects were
engaged in “arbitrary activities” in a realist style, i.e., a child eating a McDonald’s
hamburger, a child in the field barbequing, and a child fighting. A few years later,
after he made a decision to dedicate himself to painting full-t ime, he ventured to
further explore pictorial narratives. In 2002, he saw an old 20th-century photo-
graph in which a group of military men was fighting in China’s civil war. The
original picture had become blurry and it was unclear which side these soldiers
were fighting for. Gradually, he began transferring these photographic visuals to
a canvas. Soon after, the painting, Mist (Figure 7.6) was completed.
As Li Songsong’s first breakthrough creation, Mist conveys a particular force
of vitality and enthralling visual energy. It bears a similar vigor to Vija Celmins’
works in the 1960s, Burning Man (1966) and Bikini (1968). In the work Mist, vio-
lence committed by a determined group of soldiers breaks out, emitting a silent
sensation. The soldiers are centered in the middle of the painting, with their backs
facing the viewers. Formidable in spirit and fragile in f lesh, they march toward
smoke that is spreading with such rapid speed that their steps become blurry. The
grey, brown and white smoke, presumably caused by a devastating explosion in
front of them, appears so overwhelming that it seems to be devouring all living
beings. Despite the imposing danger, the soldiers are completely consumed by
a heroic mission. They fearlessly raise their arms in the air holding a grenade,
aiming it toward an invisible target masked by the f loating smoke. In the far end
backdrop, there is darkness, a continuous mountain range under the grey sky,
which encircles the battlefield, turning it into a living theatre.
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 7.6 Mist, 2002, Oil on Canvas, 130 x 160 cm. © Li Songsong
When facing the painting’s engrossing scene, there is a strange, overwhelming

feeling of both suffocation and liberation. The bright smoke that engulfs the
human figures looks so arresting that we could almost feel a sharp burn on
our skin and the nose-pumping smell of sulfur. From what the canvas portrays,
we can tell that it is a scene that captured the near end of a long-lasting battle.
We are looking from behind a group of soldiers who are at the forefront of a
massive attack. Survivors remain fighting, they have made it quite far in this
military charge, presumably because of their courage, their combat skills or a
sheer stroke of luck. While our eyes are closely following the violent movement
of the soldiers, we are intrigued by their unwavering devotion and bewildered
by the indescribable force that drives them into a war of annihilation that awaits
them. The color palette of the painting is gloomy: dark grey, white and light
brown prevail throughout the canvas. The figures in the foreground who are
following the marching soldiers become abstract, falling into oblivion. There is
no blood or mutilated bodies to be seen, and yet the destructive force brought by
the military conf lict permeates the painting.
As Christopher Knight wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 1993 on Vija
Celmins’ artworks that had imagery of violence in the 1960s:
Together, social and cultural space, time and memory unfold.... The help-
lessly silent aftermath is filled up with a level of particularized anxiety, as
the space of memory is pressed. How did this horror happen?30
In the painting Mist, what the soldiers aimed to achieve through the act of
brutality remains a mystery. As viewers, we cannot help but ask, where were they
marching? How were they going to justify the damage brought to the lives of
others? Were they merely following orders or were they motivated for a higher,
collective purpose? The canvas did not try to offer any clues to address these
questions. In a way, the painting carried the noble spirit of a typical socialist
realism military painting, but instead of honoring the spirit, the work repurposed
it into something entirely new with a critical ambiguity. These uniformed men
were running through the dangerous mist, throwing hand grenades with all their
force. They were so concentrated that they appeared to be ignoring any potential
life-threatening risks awaiting them. The smoke that enveloped their frail figures
seemed to be a screen that covered a fatal portal leading to obliteration.
The painting’s obscurity, combined with a dominating energy and force, brings
a compelling visual appeal to the viewers. Unlike most of Li Songsong’s earlier
paintings, Mist does not offer a clear narrative. And yet the military men’s deter-
mination to dedicate themselves to destruction generates such an awe-inspiring
effect that we can’t help but recall what Simone Weil wrote in The, Iliad or The
Poem of Force:
Force employed by man, force that enslaves man, force before which man’s
f lesh shrinks away. In this work, at all times, the human spirit is shown as
modified by its relations with force, as swept away, blinded, by the very
force it imagined it could handle, as deformed by the weight of the force

it submits to.31
The force, both empowered and enslaved the soldiers portrayed in the
painting, drove them to conduct a destructive attack in the uncertain past. It also
reminds us that no matter how much glorious passion these protagonists were
filled with, their spirit was “deformed by the weight of the force it submits to.”
The painting offers us a mirror, ref lecting our history by creating an annihi-
lation in motion. It achieves this masterfully by creating a time capsule. In Mist,
time is suspended, stretched and molded. Time becomes an endless labyrinth for
both the soldiers portrayed and the viewers.
Over the following two decades, portraying politically charged events at his-
torical junctures of the 20th and 21st centuries based on selected old photographs
has become a signature oeuvre of Li Songsong’s artistic evolution. He explained
that his artistic creation has been trying to figure out what the concept of China
and the identity of the Chinese culture is about because he was born and grew
up in China and the official account often offers a masking narrative. This has
become the motivation for his artmaking and the starting point of his creation.
Rather than faithfully depicting the imagery of the photographs he selected, his
creative process would transform those images into a visual ambiguity. Colors are
muted, figures become abstract, faces appear indistinct, and the motions of the
protagonists in the imagery can only be made out by the subtle changes of colors.
His unique way of interrogating these historical events and the official photo-
graphic account of them, with personal emotions filtered, was paid a great amount
of attention by artist Ai Weiwei. In 2004, Ai Weiwei’s China Art Archives &
Warehouse offered Li Songsong a monographic exhibition called Works: 2001–
2004.32 As David Spalding wrote for Art Forum in 2005 reviewing the show,
“Li’s stylized renderings of revolutionary soldiers and party officials point to the
endurance and degradation of these figures within collective memory.”33
The style of many other paintings in the exhibition further deviated from that
of Mist by adopting a new creative approach. A grid system was introduced to
divide the initial imagery in the photographs into fragments, which were painted
individually. Viewed independently, the pictorial composition of each fragment,
in a square or a rectangular grid, was abstract with muted color blocks. Perceived
in its entirety, these grids construct such a remarkably opaque visual narrative
that trying to identify it can be a laborious effort. The interiority of the historical
figures in the original photographs, if there was any, was eliminated. This is a
result of how the imagery was dissected into enlarged pixels created by marks of
oil paint and brushwork. We could no longer access the protagonists’ thoughts or
emotions, as the original photographs might have revealed.
As Spalding described:
Once disassembled by the artist, the subjects of his paintings never quite
cohere again. Instead, painting becomes an act of erasure, as the power of
the source image recedes, usurped by the artist’s wild brushwork and cool,
analytic grids. The result is a confrontation with the past that aspires to
become an exorcism.34
Such an intentional approach to abstract the historical narrative in old

photographs, through painting as “an act of erasure,” was developed fur-
ther and perfected by Li Songsong over the following ten-year period. Barry
Schwabsky wrote in his essay The Secret Powers of William Klein in August
2022, “One of photography’s secret powers is to turn time inside out. It
takes a constellation of happenings that occupied a fraction of a second and
makes it available to attention over a long span of time. 35” In Li Songsong’s
paintings, the “secret power” of turning “time inside out” is further extended
by his ingenious creative approach. Dimensions of the paintings are expanded
and subsequently, the visual elements on each grid appear more abstract.
Aluminum panels are frequently applied and nailed together which offer the
paintings a distinctive weight of gravity. The oil paints of the impasto become
increasingly thicker, and the multiple layers of texture begin to create a sculp-
tural space of its own. During his creative process, the build-up of the grids
(aluminum sheets) is less planned in advance so that a sense of “walking in
fog”36 is organically developed. He summarized this approach as “you don’t
exactly know the direction you’re heading in until you get there. It’s not until
the last section is finished that I can see what’s happening.”37
And yet, the perfection of his distinctive painting technique only reinforces
the urgency for us to ref lect and question the past and present reality more
fiercely through his works, as Toni Morrison wrote in her novel Jazz:38
The past might haunt us, but it would not entrap us. It demanded a future—
and refused to regard the past as “…an abused record with no choice but
to repeat itself at the crack and no power on earth could lift the arm that
held the needle.”
In October 2013, Li Songsong had a monographic exhibition at Pace Gallery

in London called We Have Betrayed the Revolution, a title that referred to both
“political/ideological betrayal” and “revolutions in art.”39 In the catalogue essay
for the show, Ai Weiwei wrote:
It is difficult for us to believe that what we see and hear in the world
correlates with those intrinsic values we hold within ourselves, as our fra-
gile understandings and perceptions are constantly provoked and rejected;
while it is also difficult for us to find outlets for spiritual expression...Li
Songsong’s paintings ref lect just this.40
In 2016, Li Songsong began to apply the technique of archery, an exercise he

practiced at home during his leisure time, in the creative process for his paintings.
Archery has had an enduring history as a skill in martial arts practice. Adopting
the technique in oil painting offered him an indirect approach to interacting

with paints and painting surfaces.
In this new approach, he:
put the paintbrush on the arrow and (would) shoot the arrow out on alu-
minum panels or wooden boards from a distance, recording the rhythm
and sense of force of continuous impact through astonishingly curved,
uneven surfaces and punctured openings.41
At first glance, the group of paintings created through his archery appears to be
a deviation from his previous creative trajectory. There are no photographs that
depict historical events used as a source of inspiration. The pictorial composition
of the splashed paints on a single sheet of surface, either an aluminum panel or
a wooden board, conveys a sense of entirety, rather than existing imagery being
deconstructed through a constellation of individually painted panels. Visually the
paintings become even more abstract when the original source of the narrative
is removed. The final creation begins to offer the viewers liberty of imagination
and interpretation.
More importantly, the creative process of archery where the arrows, as if
granted a sovereign energy of life, carrying a human-initiated force, become the
medium and agent that completes the final act of painting, offering the artist a
different dimension of freedom.
As Sebastian Smee once described:
I’m talking instead about freedom as an experience: the experience of

being on your own; not subject to the manipulation of external powers;
responding without fear and in your own style to the world around you;
allowing free rein to the feelings thus evoked. I’m talking about the
freedom of art.42
The enduring process of creating a painting by releasing arrows numerous

times, “the lengthening and ritualistic repetition in the process of an action,”43
enabled him to grasp the sense of time with more masterful skills and wisdom.
At one point, the total count of the arrow shots for a painting that consisted
of three aluminum panels, called 4531, was the exact number of 4,531. The
painting was created over a period of twenty days. As part of the preparatory
work, the artist drew a grid system in his notebook which indicated where each
arrow was expected to land once released. During the “painting” process, over
one thousand arrows were released with focused targets on each of the three
aluminum panels. 1,126 shots, 1,665 shots and 1,740 shots respectively, before
the final panels full of arrow paints were assembled into a complete piece. In
his notebook, he recorded the various numbers of the daily archery shots, one
day 572 shots, others 361 or 180 shots, etc. The scrupulous planning and execu-
tion, combined with the limited amount of randomness (the daily arrow shots
FIGURE 7.7 105 Shots, 2016, Oil on Aluminum Panel, 100 x 100 cm. © Li Songsong
for instance), exemplified how the artist incorporated time as an ingredient, a

medium and a partner during the creative process.
In Li Songsong’s painting 105 shots (Figure 7.7) created in 2016, brushes
soaked with white paints were installed at the tip of the arrows and released to an
aluminum panel, which beforehand was painted in a dark green color. The final
painting was created after a hundred and five archery shots were taken by the
artist. Not dissimilar from Jackson Pollock or Kazuo Shiraga’s action paintings,
the creative process of the work incorporated a performance component. And yet
distinctive from Pollock or Shiraga’s paintings, the measured, meticulous count
of the arrow shots indicated by the work offers viewers a more concrete image of
how the actions were taken by the artist and the number of repetitions endured.
The visual outcome conveyed by the painting appears more as a compos-
ition constructed by chance from a performance that had a tangible goal, to
release the arrow 105 times. In the final painting, blurry-edged light green dots,
accompanied by radiant splashes of white paint, indicated the locations where
the arrows attacked the panel, layer upon layer, and traveled across the canvas.
Their random trajectory ref lected the artist’s purposeful loss of control when he
repetitively released the arrows. The simplicity of the work’s color palette—d ark
green, white, and light green—generates such a pure visual appeal that we can
almost sense the indulging delight of diving into a pond on a sultry summer day.
The water splashes into the air, encircling our bodies: it is a sense of playfulness,
an innocent pleasure deeply embedded in our childhood memories.
The “open- ended discovery…in which we determine our own orienta-
tion,” as described by Jed Perl, was precisely what the painting 105 shots offers
44
to us. It stops time for us. We are left with the liberty to indulge in the act of
looking, roaming between the pictorial composition, leaping and sliding with
the movements of the white paints, and jumping into the deep green space that
seemed to hold our imagination over an eternity.
For a couple of years, due to an injury from a skiing accident, Li Songsong
was not able to practice archery. Even after he fully recovered, he decided to
end this creative approach once and for all. The group of archery paintings, as
it turns out, became a body of work produced based on a temporary, intensive
period of experimentation. Nevertheless, this transitional period brought the
artist a transformed creative energy and contemplation of abstraction in its purest
form. It is fair to say that the experimental period of archery paintings marked a
watershed moment in his artistic evolution. Since then, Li Songsong’s artworks
have begun to demonstrate a new level of freedom and f luidity between figura-
tive and abstraction, between painting and sculpture. The work created during
the pandemic in 2022, True Love, is an excellent example of the transformation.
In 2019, a few months before the pandemic broke out, it marked the thirtieth
anniversary of the 1989 events in Tiananmen square. As part of his annual ritu-
alistic practice around June 4th over the past few decades, Li Songsong created a
painting based on a public photograph of the event in June, thirty years ago. The
source image depicted the scene where tens of thousands of student protesters
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 7.8 Three Decades, 2019, Oil on Canvas, 210 x 420 cm. © Li Songsong
were sitting in Tiananmen Square, hoping that their pleading would lead the
country in a better, more democratic direction.
The colossal painting Three Decades (Figure 7.8), one of the largest Li Songsong
ever created to commemorate the subject matter of Tiananmen, is by all means
a masterpiece. It took the artist two months to complete the work. Two 210 x
210 cm canvases with nearly invisible grid marks were combined horizontally.
Orange and dark red paints were laid out as the first layers, then covered stroke
by stroke with muted-color paints. The colors of each grid were decided spon-
taneously, improvised by the artist along the way. While the prior layer of paint
was placed on the surface of the panel, the artist did not think about what the
next stroke and paint color would be, a choice made purposefully to incorporate
a sense of improvisation. Despite the “by chance” component of the creative
process, every stroke, every layer of paint, was treated with the painter’s special
care and respect.
The abstract imagery consists of a dense accumulation of pixels, conveyed
by his signature impasto and multilayered sculptural paints, and expands on a
massive surface. Looking up close, we feel the strong gravity of the paint that
seems to be pulling us like a prolonged passage of time. Gazing at the work
from a distance, the harmonious color palette combines white, gray, black, dark
green, and light green, mixed with sparse red and orange paints underneath the
muted colors of the surface, glows with a sublime illumination. At the same time,
we can fully grasp the magnitude of the historical juncture in China’s modern
history conveyed by the painting. Visually we are overwhelmed by the dense
imagery of shoulder-to-shoulder, mountains of people, portrayed by the strokes
and the layers of paint. Although we could not make out the protagonists’ faces
or their expressions due to the abstract depiction, we could nevertheless sense
their zealous stare, their eagerness to communicate, and their deep emotions.
Looking at the painting long enough, we could even start to grow the desire to
walk into the painting, sit down with the crowds and stare back at the onlookers.
The viewing experience gradually becomes a mysterious self-ref lective process,
as if we as observers are trying to complete a loop of time with a profound sense
of engagement with the painting and its subjects. As Jed Perl once wrote “we
look quickly or slowly, we look where we want to when we want to, we enter
into a time that is out of time” and we are “free to regard left and right as existing
simultaneously, or to explore not only from left to right but also from right to
left—which might suggest going backward in time.”45
In Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations, the narrator said:
The passing of time exacerbates and intensifies any storm, even though
there wasn’t the tiniest cloud on the horizon at the beginning. We cannot
know what time will do to us with its fine, indistinguishable layers upon
layers, we cannot know what it might make of us.46
The sacred, disturbing and yet magnetic appeal of the painting, ultimately,
comes from its power to elicit our deepest sense of time. It has become so tangible,
as if we could touch its every fabric, every shift with our hands, the day-by-d ay
count of the past thirty years, the hour-by-hour accumulation of paint, and the
minute-by-m inute of sitting, waiting and hoping on that day in the spring of
1989. The painting captures and presents a slice of time, a glimpse of lives, a
moment of infinity, and a carved slab of memory. How much time does a lifespan
contain? How many moments of memory do thirty years hold? We cannot help
but ask, knowing precisely what happened to the lives portrayed in the painting.
To fully experience the painting, its transcending power, and its sensibility of
color and composition takes time. When standing in front of the work, we feel that
our focal point is first attracted to the center-left. Precisely there, the f lesh-like light
brown palette dotted with black immediately reminds us of the occasion, crowds of
people packed together. Soon after, we feel our stare increasingly enveloped by the
countless black dots surrounding us. It seems that they are gradually approaching,
our body is being pulled in different directions towards the painting, left, right,
top, down, the center. We can almost feel the weight of their force coming from all
directions. Meanwhile, the black dots, collectively trying to stretch themselves out
between the green, white, gray, and brown are actively seeking breathing space,
dancing and wrestling with the rest of the colors. The endless tensions in between
the thick paints and colors are charged with a chorusing energy, growing into a
symphony. For a moment, we even feel the musical atmosphere of J.S. Bach’s St.
Matthew Passion emerge through the painting’s visual elements.
The composition of the painting, with its high intensity and sculpturesque
texture, appears both corporeal and abstract. The longer we look at it, the
stronger we feel that the geometric solidity of the paint and the sobriety of the
image carries an ambiance like Cezanne’s portrait of Mont Sainte-Victoire. As
T.J. Clark described:
Supposing (here is the skeptic’s suggestion) that the “this-thereness” were

nothing but an effect of purely material processes, whose being—whose
whole character—is deeply hidden from us, but which nonetheless do “take
us over” at certain moments, displacing the self-evidence of the world...whenever
(rarely) we try to bring “this-thereness” into the light, and paint (inscribe,
dance, sing, give form to) the sheer fact of existence.47
Perhaps, by offering this fragment in time of a firm and abstract portraiture,

the painting, through its light and shadow, creates a perpetual passage for us to
communicate with the past. And perhaps, by creating a constellation of paints
into a solid, dense landscape, the artist transformed his most intransigent practice
into a sacred visual presence.
When ref lecting on his decades of creation, Li Songsong said that he never
stopped trying to motivate and train himself. “There are certain things that you
cannot get over for the rest of your life…the experiences of a person’s early years
shape their life.” And ultimately, what drives him to create gets down to these
fundamental questions:
What is it that I am doing? Why am I here?
Richard Taruskin once wrote that “Art can be autonomous only if the maker
shapes it with sufficient mastery and control.”48 Li Songsong’s creative journey
is filled with these humbling questions which he constantly uses to interrogate
himself. The unyielding contemplation of how his artistic practice could engage
deeply with the past and present reality has shaped the continuous evolution of his
artworks. Enduring the passage of time, his art has achieved its own autonomy.
Notes
1 https://z wgk.mct.gov.cn/z fxxgk ml/kjjy/202208/t 20220831_935698.html.
2 www.docin.com/p - 639604701.html. (Based on the calculation of arts and projects
from 1983 to 2010, added with the numbers funded in 2011 and 2012).
3 http://m.thepaper.cn/r ss_ newsDetai l_19408558?from=sohu.
4 http://m.thepaper.cn/r ss_ newsDetai l_19408558?from=sohu.
5 www.tokyo-g allery.com/en/exhibitions/4036.html.
6 https://phila museum.org/col lect ion/object/85714.
7 www.artfor um.com/print/198204/m arks-c y-t wombly-35604.
8 www.sohu.com/a/579548789_162522.
9 www.theparisreview.org/i nterviews/5680/the-a rt-of-f iction-no-190-jav ier-m ar ias.
10 www.xubi ng.com/en/work/detai ls/188?classID=12&type=class.
11 Wu Hung, Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, The
University of Chicago Press, 2005.
12 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t /t ap/7977573.0008.103/- - d epart i ng-f rom- s ocial i st-
realism-april-photo-society-1979?rgn=m ain;view=f ulltext.
13 https://a aa.org.hk/en/collections/search/a rchive/l i-x ianti ng-a rchive-l i-x ianti ng-
editorial-works/object/regardi ng-the-stars-a rt-exhibition.
14 www.xubi ng.com/cn/d ataba se/comment/281.
15 https:// blogs.commons.geor getown.edu/cctp-711-f all2018/2 018/12/12/how-t o-
interpret-the-nonsen se-a rtwork-book-f rom-the-sky/.
16 https://a rtmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/41315.
20 www.chinaf i le.com/report i ng-opin ion/cult u re/forbidden-w riter
21 www.lib.berkeley.edu/E AL/stone/r ubbings.html.
22 www.artfor um.com/picks/x u-bing- 45677.
23 Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, Viewer as Performer: A Cognitive Journey from Xu Bing’s
Tianshu to Dishu, 2014.
24 https://a ntigonejournal.com/2022/06/bassa ni-etrusca ns-jews/.
25 www.artnetnews.cn/a rt-world/x ubingruhezaifeichuantongdeqingtin gzhiyanz hon
gxunzhaozhenshi-118315.
26 www.artnews.com/a rt-i n-a mer ica/features/your-f ace-tomor row- 63595/.
27 www.nybooks.com/a rticles/2014/07/10/lust-a nd-loss-m ad r id/.
28 CAFA and the high school later moved to a different location in Beijing.
29 www.phaidon.com/a genda/a rt/a rticles/2 013/september/27/ l i- songson gs-f irst-lon
don-show-at-pace-g allery/.
30 www.latimes.com/a rchives/la-x pm-1993-12-21-ca-3995-story.html.

31 Simone Weil, The Iliad, or The Poem of Force, translated by Mary McCarthy, Chicago
Review, 1965.
32 www.artfor um.com/print/reviews/200504/l i-songsong- 4 4957.
35 www.thenat ion.com/a rticle/cult u re/w ill iam-k lein-photographs/.
38 Toni Morrison, Jazz, Knopf, 1992.
39 www.ft.com/content/ca8e937c-2cdf-11e3-a0ac- 0 0144feab7de
40 Ai Weiwei, That Person, Those Things, August 2013.
41 https://ocula.com/a rt-g aller ies/pace-g allery/exhibitions/beihai/
42 www.wash ing tonpost.com/a rts-enterta inment/i nteract ive/2022/adolph-menzel-sitt
ing-room/?itid=sf_entertai nment_ ar ticle_ l ist.
43 https://ocula.com/a rt-g aller ies/pace-g allery/exhibitions/beihai/.
44 Jed Perl, Antoine’s Alphabet—Watteau and His world, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
45 Jed Perl, Antoine’s Alphabet—Watteau and His world, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008
46 Javier Marías, The Infatuations (English translation), Vintage International, 2014.
47 T.J. Clark, If These Apples Should Fall, Cezanne and The Present, Thames &
Hudson, 2022.
48 Richard Taruskin, Cursed Questions: On Music and Its Social Practices, University of California
Press, 2011.
8
SHANGHAI, BUDDHIST PRACTICE
AND THE POST-APOCALYPTIC
DIGITAL WORLD
March 2022, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

In March 2022, one of the few Chinese contemporary art exhibitions held in the
United States during the pandemic, Legacies of Exchange: Chinese Contemporary Art
from the Yuz Foundation, ended at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
after being on view for over eight months. The survey exhibition was part of
LACMA’s partnership with the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, a private museum
founded in 2014 by Budi Tek, a Chinese-Indonesian businessman who was one
of the most inf luential art collectors in the world. In 2013, Budi Tek was listed
by ArtReview magazine as No. 79 on the Power 100, the publication’s ranking of
the most powerful people in the contemporary art world.1
The show at LACMA exhibited a group of Chinese contemporary artworks
selected from the Yuz Museum’s collection, which took Budi Tek a number of
decades to acquire. Right before the show closed, the Yuz Museum announced
that it had donated seven artworks in the exhibition to LACMA. A few days
later, Budi Tek passed away in Hong Kong at the age of 65 from pancreatic
cancer, an illness he had been battling for years. The donation to LACMA has
become an important part of his legacy.
The group of gifted works included the acclaimed Zodiac Heads installation
containing 12 bronzes by the internationally celebrated artist Ai Weiwei, all
animal heads based on the Chinese zodiac. The original set of 12 sculptures they
were based on was previously in Yuanmingyuan, the old imperial summer palace
in Beijing that was wrecked by the European invaders during the Second Opium
War (1856–1860). Another gifted work was a large-scale installation, though
lesser known, equally thought-provoking and satirical. The Doubter (Figure 8.1),
1.8 m x 1.2 m x 2.4 m, was created by the Shanghai-based artist Qiu Anxiong
in 2010. The installation shows a caged chimpanzee wearing a white bathrobe,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-11
lying on top of a toilet seat, likely dead. On the tiled f loor, there is a handgun, a
Bible and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, both versions translated into Chinese.
Judging from the props, viewers can assume that the installation portrays a chim-
panzee, post capture, caged and trained by humans, that eventually committed
suicide with the gun after reading the two books.
When the work was on view at LACMA, which reopened after a substan-
tial period of closure due to the outbreak of COVID-19, it conveyed an eerie
feeling in the empty Resnick Pavilion. The lifelike artificial chimpanzee, whose
facial expression is extremely tranquil, seems to have died in peace, resting
comfortably on top of a toilet seat. The enclosed cage undoubtedly reminds
us of our lives during the lockdown of the pandemic, isolated from the rest
of the world. Viewing it in its entirety, the suicide scene of the chimpanzee
appears less a result of a tragic event, but an ironic ridicule of the concept of
Anthropocene. With the pandemic ongoing and new variants of the virus emer-
ging, who could deny that the chimpanzee was making a sardonic mockery
of human beings. At the same time, when looking through the cage, our
encounter with the chimpanzee also elicits a sense of empathy. From what the
artist has implied through the installation, we can assume the chimpanzee was
once intelligent with strong cognitive abilities. They were able to read Chinese,
sharp enough to understand the content of the books, capable of using a gun
and able to make a rational choice to take their own life. Were they subject
to laboratory experiments? Why did they decide to terminate their own life?
What did they doubt after reading the books? Did they foresee the apocalyptic
ending of the world and decide to pursue suicide to avoid suffering? Perhaps
the chimpanzee’s tragic life is emblematic of a message the artist wants to send to the
viewers—that our ignorance and arrogance will result in a terrible future for the
human species. The artwork, created over a decade ago, demonstrates such pres-
cient humor and wisdom that we are left to contemplate the absurdity of human
society.
It was not the first time that Qiu Anxiong’s creation interrogated the arrogance
and the ridiculousness of a human- centered mentality. Anthropomorphized
animals constantly appear in his paintings and videos, sometimes in scenes of
urban landscapes, as if they are the only organisms left after the extinction of
the human species. Often his artwork tends to examine the world from the per-
spective of other species, exposing the cruelty of humans and how such cruelty
results in our own demise. The dystopian scenes in his work carry a profound
metaphorical implication.
In 2010, when Qiu Anxiong was making the installation The Doubter, he
was also preoccupied with his signature video trilogy, New Classic of Mountains
and Seas, which took him nearly 15 years to create (2003–2018). As the most
celebrated series of artworks by Qiu, it includes over a hundred traditional
Chinese-style woodblock prints, almost three hundred paintings and three ani-
mation videos. The series also contains the “archival material related to the
artist’s reinterpretation of The Classic of Mountains and Seas 山海经, an illustrated
Shanghai, Buddhism, and the Post-Apocalyptic Digital World 211
FIGURE 8.1 The Doubter, installation, 1.8 m x 1.2 m x 2.4 m, 2010. © Qiu Anxiong
Chinese literary classic that blends real and fantastical landscapes and creatures.”2
The creative process for the series started in 2003 when Qiu began to make
a set of traditional-looking Chinese woodblock prints, which encompassed a
number of surreal creatures with elements of modern technologies imagined
by the artist. Each print was then given “a title with the creature’s name—a
thinly veiled phonetic equivalent of its name in English—and an enumeration of
its salient characteristics.”3 For instance, Leaf A of New Classic of Mountains and
Seas I (Figure 8.2), which was collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York,4 shows a creature that is half-tortoise, half-automobile, accompanied
FIGURE 8.2 New Classic of Mountains and Seas I, woodcut on Chinese paper, 50 x
42 cm, 1 of 12 pieces, 2009. © Qiu Anxiong
by a Chinese-language inscription written by the artist. The Chinese script was

composed in the style of classical Chinese literature, providing a similar f lavor to
that of the original The Classic of Mountains and Seas. The Chinese characters are
arranged from right to left, top to bottom, based on the convention of reading
before the New Cultural Movement in China in the 20th century. The Chinese
script says the following:
Aotuo
There is a kind of beast that originated on the American continent. It has
a f lat head and an empty belly. Its back has a glass-like surface; its eyes are
as large as torches. It moves on wind-driven wheels. It does not eat but
drinks oil instead. It runs one thousand li in a single day, superior to the
finest steeds. Nowadays, everyone rides them. It is called “Aotuo” [Auto], or
“Qiche” [car in Chinese].5
The images of the woodblock prints were then incorporated into paintings
created by Qiu with a storyline that depicts a dystopian world in which
these imagined creatures destroyed human habitats. Subsequently, Qiu took
photographs of these paintings and edited them into a video slightly less than
30 minutes in duration. The painstaking process of creating each sequel of the
video trilogy New Classic of Mountains and Seas, which demanded the artist’s
unwavering attention to every detail, partially explains why it took Qiu so many
years to complete the series.
As Wang Xueli wrote in Art in America in 2018:
Rivaling the breathtaking imagination of the original Classic, Qiu’s trilogy

unfolds in surreal, black-and-white scenes portraying vast landscapes
inhabited by mutant creatures.... His desire to turn traditional painting
into moving images is at the same time a desire to defamiliarize video and
critique contemporary realities through ancient sensibilities.6
Qiu’s New Classic of Mountains and Seas series, with a medium and format that
is drastically different from those of his installation The Doubter, fundamentally
shares a similar artistic philosophy with the latter. It questions the concept of the
Anthropocene that has been taken for granted in our society and tries to portray a
world damaged by our modern technologies from the standpoint of other species.
As the artist explained:
For us, life itself is a big unknown, but to solve it by means of conquest, is
it a reasonable way? Can it really bring us happiness? I think we need to
think about it. I think a lot of the (technologies) in our modern times are
really intruding and damaging the ecosystem.... Even today, science itself
is still at a stage where people are still making discoveries and coming up
with results. Science is not absolute. I think it’s problematic if people today
elevate it to a position of absoluteness.
Qiu is one of the pioneering Chinese contemporary artists who has system-
atically examined the harms imposed by human technology on our planet and
imagines a world better off without a human-centered mentality. In doing so,
he has ventured into a new artistic style that seamlessly combines ancient Asian
philosophy (i.e., Buddhism) with a virtual dystopian narrative generated with
computer software. Such a unique creative juxtaposition has been shared by
another artist who also resides in Shanghai, Lu Yang. Born a generation later, Lu
Yang takes the creative approach of integrating himself 7 as a metamorphosing
avatar living and breathing in a constantly transitioning virtual dystopia.
April 2022, Venice Biennial

At the end of April 2022, after being postponed for a year due to the pandemic,
the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, one of the most
prestigious international art exhibitions, opened in Venice, Italy. With a theme
called The Milk of Dreams, the Biennial featured 213 artists from 58 countries,8
around 90% of whom were female artists,9 the largest percentage in the history
of the Biennial. As one of the three artists from the PRC,10 Lu Yang created a
new video for the Biennial, DOKU –Digital Descending, a title later changed to
DOKU the Self (Figure 8.3).
DOKU is a digital avatar created by Lu Yang, an androgynous protagonist in
his most recent works. The name is based on Dokusho Dokushi, which means
“we are born alone, and we die alone.”11 Due to the lockdown in Shanghai in
the spring of 2022, the PRC border remained closed when the Venice Biennial
started. Lu Yang was not able to travel to Venice for the opening ceremony of
the Biennial. The video, slightly over 30 minutes in length, starts with a meta-
phorical picture of the turbulent world that year. While the pandemic, which
broke out at the end of 2019 was still haunting us, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
brought another catastrophic event to the world. At the beginning of the video,
buildings are collapsing into ruins, and mutilated body parts of the deceased are
scattered among the shattered concrete blocks, followed by a tumultuous plane
crash in a storm. It is a scene of an apocalypse that the viewers would not feel
unfamiliar with had they been closely following the tragic Ukraine War. The
protagonist DOKU, who does not show a clear indication of gender and has
a facial feature similar to that of the artist, is wearing a gray-g reen sweatshirt
with the text “to live fully is to be always in no-m an’s-land” on the front and
“to be willing to die over and over again” on the back. He appears at first as a
passenger on the aircraft as it experiences a crash. He then survives the plane
crash and transforms through six different stages of reincarnation. In each stage,
DOKU is equipped with a different style of armor, dancing to the beat of high-
tempo music. DOKU’s dance movements are carried with such composure that
newgenrtpdf
the Self, 2022. © Lu Yang
FIGURE 8.3 DOKU
he seems to have elegantly navigated between heaven, hell, and the passages in
between. In the end, “the self ” of DOKU gradually dissolves into microelements,
echoing the spiritual concept of “anatman” (non-self ) in Buddhism. We visually
witness DOKU dissolving, which is accompanied by a narrator in the back-
ground mentioning the word “uninstalling” hinting that the process is similar to
that of uninstalling computer software.
After going through the reincarnations, DOKU becomes the survivor, the
hero, the performer, the prophet, the savior, a virtual being, and eventually, an
element of the universe. It is “the self ” that we project in our imagination. It
does not have any biological presence, but only a digital identity that Lu Yang has
created in the virtual world. In Lu Yang’s video, DOKU has achieved an eternal
existence through the endless cycles of life, death and rebirth. And yet without
a computer system, DOKU does not exist. The scenes in the end that show the
dissolution of DOKU ref lect the philosophy in the Diamond Sutra, “So not
attaching to self is also not attaching to living beings.”12
Philosophically, not unlike Qiu Anxiong’s New Classic of Mountains and Seas
series, Lu Yang’s DOKU the Self tells a surreal story in a fictional world through
sequential scenes generated by computers. It questions the calamity caused by
humans and reveals the limitation of technologies that have been hailed as quint-
essential human inventions. Their works convey a clear message: we have become
the technological victims of our own making. At the end of the day, respecting
the universe with a humble, “non-self ” approach is what matters.
Different from the creations of Xu Bing and Li Songsong, whose artworks
often examine the dynamics of the past and present societal reality, Qiu Anxiong
and Lu Yang’s works tend to deal with issues between the human species and
the rest of the world or a post-apocalyptic world where digital incarnations take
place. By applying traditional Asian religious theories, such as Buddhism, their
art, particularly their videos, examine the fundamental concepts of human iden-
tity and what it means to exist in the universe, physically, mentally and virtually.
According to one theory of Buddhism, “Existence is emptiness. When the con-
fusion is cleared, you know that emptiness and existence are equal. Do not attach
to either annihilationism or eternalism.”13 Many of their videos convey this phil-
osophy with complex narratives and compelling visual effects.
Meanwhile, the two artists have distinctively different sensibilities. The
moving images of Qiu Anxiong’s videos often incorporate traditionally looking
Chinese ink paintings and woodblock prints. The pace of how the narrative
progresses is slow. Watching his videos, we feel like we are reading a Chinese
handscroll, which is unveiling in front of our eyes. The colors are monochrome,
black, white and gray. Landscapes, animals and other beings often take the center
stage in the stories. The fate of human beings is normally presented as a trivial
background narrative. Lu Yang’s videos, on the contrary, mostly carry a fast
beat, which ref lects his long-term interest in street music, Japanese manga and
animation culture. The narratives in his works often develop around a protag-
onist, whose constant actions drive the progress of the storylines. From one scene
to another, the visual experience is invigorating, colors exuberant, and full of

wonder. In some of his works, with the shifts of scenes, the protagonist has a
monologue. By asking himself questions and answering them, the artist’s con-
templation of Buddhist philosophy is fully demonstrated.
Although Qiu Anxiong and Lu Yang have taken different approaches to
ref lect Asian religious philosophy in their artworks, they have both successfully
created an immersive experience for us without being didactic. By portraying a
variety of surreal worlds and narratives, they effectively interrogate many critical
issues in reality without directly taking on realistic matters themselves. Viewers
of their works do not have to take educational courses on Buddhism to under-
stand the deep Buddhist meaning embedded in their videos. Both Qiu Anxiong
and Lu Yang have developed the ingenious approach of questioning the benefits
of technology through moving images generated by technology itself. As a result,
their works, filled with a mass-audience appeal, help a younger generation appre-
ciate traditional Asian religious themes in a modern and enchanting way.
It is fair to say that among all the Chinese contemporary artists whose creative
production tackles the topics of Anthropocene and Buddhism, Qiu Anxiong and
Lu Yang’s works are infused with particularly strong visual elements and philo-
sophical depth. The sophistication of their creation and their ability to make
Buddhist philosophy accessible have won their works wide recognition among
international art institutions and museums.
The 1990s, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute

Western scholars have been fascinated with the masterful combination of Chinese
ink painting and the tech-savvy video-m aking skills necessary to create Qiu
Anxiong’s works. They perhaps have not been aware of the artist’s early creative
trajectory, which was filled with rebellion, and heavily inf luenced by Western
contemporary art and culture. Born in Sichuan in 1972, Qiu was enrolled at the
Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1994. Similar to what Li Songsong experienced
at CAFA during his undergraduate studies, Qiu was drawn to learning about
Western modern and contemporary art in college.
Throughout my time in college, all I read and listened to were Western

things, and I absorbed Western culture. I did not have much interest in trad-
itional Chinese things and felt their time had passed. At the time in China,
traditional Chinese culture was considered “feudal” and “superstitious.”
Before he graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Qiu Anxiong
created a few installations, one of which had a snake in a large glass jar, with
oxygen injected into the enclosed space. In a performance that accompanied the
installation, the snake was taken out from the jar and the artist danced with the
snake while contemporary music played in the background. In the end, the snake
was released and the rest of the props of the artworks were burned.
Not unlike many artists who studied oil paintings at CAFA in Beijing at the
time, the works of German Expressionism appealed to Qiu. A few years after
college, in the late 1990s, his painting style was figurative and expressive, deeply
inf luenced by German Expressionism. In 1998 he went to Kassel Germany, first
to study the German language and then he enrolled at Kunsthochschule Kassel
to study art. He spent four years at the University learning more about paintings
and exploring the latest creative works of contemporary art by visiting as many
exhibitions as possible. By the time he graduated from Kunsthochschule Kassel,
the themes of his painting gradually transformed into those of Chinese landscape
paintings, though mostly depicted through oil on canvas, in an abstract style.
This new stage of artistic creation ref lected his contemplation of his identity
living in Europe as a Chinese artist:
I realized that I cannot be European. You grew up in China, and you are
already molded into a typical Chinese person. Your way of thinking and
your habits are still very typically Chinese, that is, you find this is the
case after comparing yourself. So, when you look at traditional things in
China, you personally have a lot of ideas that resonate with these trad-
itional things. No matter how long you stay in the West, you still cannot
connect because there is a layer that separates you. These things are just not
deeply rooted in your bones. It’s a two-way street, on the one hand you
are seeing things from a Western perspective and have that experience, on
the other hand you began to develop a deeper understanding of your own
cultural in this environment (Germany).
Qiu’s reckoning with his own cultural identity, after living in Germany for
five years, ultimately shaped his artistic creation henceforth. What he went
through was also shared by many other Chinese contemporary artists. Xu Bing
had a similar experience after living in the US for 18 years. When Liu Xiaodong
taught at CAFA in Beijing in the 1990s after spending a few years in New York,
he reinforced to his students the imperativeness of exploring their unique artistic
style which should be different from their Western peers.14 Perhaps it was such an
immersive experience in a Western culture that stimulated many Chinese artists
to rediscover traditional Chinese philosophical thinking deeply rooted in the
history of the country. (We will discuss a similar trajectory for Hong Kong-based
artist Zheng Bo in the next chapter.)
In 2003, after graduating from Kunsthochschule Kassel, Qiu Anxiong
returned to China. He had a firm belief that the environment in Germany would
not suit him to further explore his artistic creation. He had to go back to China.
At the time, he decided that the starting point of his artistic approach at this
new stage would grow from traditional Chinese cultural resources. Besides, he
wanted to create artworks in a medium not restricted to paintings, for instance,
installations, videos and animations. The idea of New Classic of Mountains and Seas
was gradually shaped.
Eventually, Qiu Anxiong settled in Shanghai, because in the mid-2000s the

contemporary artist community there was not heavily populated like in Beijing,
and the concept of being an art market center was not a dominating force like in
Beijing.15 “Although (life at) the beginning was very difficult, at that time you
felt that the overall environment was quite vibrant.”
After relocating to Shanghai from Kassel in 2003, Qiu Anxiong started to
create a series of imagined creatures loosely based on the storyline of the ori-
ginal Classic of Mountains and Seas. They were first produced as ink drawings
with brushes on rice paper and then as woodblock prints. The creation of these
creatures in the format of traditional Chinese drawings and prints took him a
year. Subsequently, Qiu spent the next two years completing the storyboard for
Part I of New Classic of Mountains and Seas, creating a painting for each still of the
film and then editing the imagery of all the paintings into the final video. When
ref lecting on the creative thinking behind the work, Qiu said:
First of all, the work references ancient literature of The Classic of Mountains
and Seas. Second, it is a ref lection of modern civilization. Modern civil-
ization has driven us towards over-consumption and frivolous desires; we
have lost the basic value of life itself and have been carried away by super-
ficial things: some of the goals we pursue may not be what we really need
for ourselves.
The work premiered at the 6th Shanghai Biennial in 2006 and immediately
attracted rave reviews from dometic and international art critics who visited
the exhibition. As David Briers wrote for Art Monthly in June 2008, when the
video was exhibited at the Asia Triennial Manchester 08, the UK’s first Asian
Art Triennial:
By turns lyrical, absurd and terrifying, Qiu’s apocalyptic, half-hour long,

three-channel animation presents a continuously transmogrifying narrative
sequence of mythical and historical iconography, featuring mechanized
tortoises, black angels and giant scorpions.... Qiu’s oeuvre runs counter not
only to the stereotypical distinction between traditional and modern in
Asian art, but also between ancient and modern.16
Throughout the next decade, while Qiu Anxiong was working on Part II and
Part III of New Classic of Mountains and Seas, the series of works were continu-
ously attracting scholarly research and exhibitions worldwide. The Ink Art: Past
as Present in Contemporary China exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
from 2013 to 2014 showed four videos by Qiu,17 including Part I and Part II
of the series (Part III was not finished at that time). Different works from the
New Classic of Mountains and Seas series have been collected by many inf luential
museums. In addition to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, these institutions
include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum in
New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Arken Museum of
Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas
University, and Hong Kong Museum of Art.
The success of New Classic of Mountains and Seas earned Qiu Anxiong a repu-
tation among Western scholars as one of the “new generation of Chinese artists
who bridge Chinese culture and history and today’s globalized contemporary
art.”18 When Part I of the video series was completed, before he continued ven-
turing to Part II and III, Qiu came up with the creative idea of an even bolder
project in its physical scale, an installation of a Chinese train carriage 25 meters
long and weighing more than 40 tons.
The work, called Staring into Amnesia, was created in 2007. The installation
was first shown at Boers-Li Gallery19 in Beijing in 2007, then at Art Basel in
Switzerland in 2008,20 followed by the Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
in 2009.21 A real, used train carriage from the 1990s was acquired and converted
by Qiu into an installation that offers an immersive experience to the viewers.
Visitors could get on the carriage and sit on the green hard seats. Each window of
the train was replaced with a screen, where “twenty-four black-and-white arch-
ival film loops unfurl onto the windows, a different projection for each seating
compartment.”22 The black-and-white films included “documentary and propa-
ganda clips of China’s turbulent past: 1930s Japanese occupation, World War II,
the famous meeting of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Chiang Kai-
shek and Red Guard campaigns.”23
When ref lecting on the massive undertaking of creating the installation,
Qiu Anxiong felt that during that booming period of Chinese contemporary
art, when the Chinese economy was doing well, it was relatively easy to source
funding and convince his gallery to facilitate a bold art project like Staring into
Amnesia. “People were willing to support such crazy ideas then.”
As soon as it was exhibited in Switzerland and then Denmark, the installation
caused an instant sensation. The vintage train carriage with its look, smell and
hard-seat texture, created a time capsule through which the visitors were able to
grasp the feeling of traveling across China in the early opening-up period during
the early 1990s. As Qiu Anxiong recalled:
The train brought back a deep memory for my generation. For me riding
the train was a pleasant experience, because it took me to faraway places,
fascinating adventures. Riding the train felt like being in a small social
community. Although we were strangers, as long as you sat there, you
instantly formed a temporary group with the people next to you. We
would begin chatting and many stories would be shared on the train. In the
1990s and even the early 2000s, the green train was important to our lives
because the majority of people traveled by train, rather than took f lights
(which were not affordable at the time).
The train represented a symbol of collective memory. In China,
people generally are not willing to mention the memory of the past
and want to let it pass as soon as possible. I think there may be very
complicated reasons for this. Of the past people experienced before, they
either provided an excessive embellishment of the account or completely
forgot on purpose. So, this memory of the train I created was an idea of
reliving the collective memory.
Andrew Cohen reviewed the work in ArtAsiaPacific in 2009: “Qiu creates

views for his passengers, forcing them to remember the horrors and pleasures of
the past, the individual or collective experiences of youth and old age, life and
death, love and suicide.”24
Staring into Amnesia is one of the few artworks Qiu Anxiong created after he
moved to Shanghai which conveyed a non-surreal creative style. It enables the
viewers to relive a period in China’s modern history, which is often portrayed with
conf licting accounts, depending on who is presenting the narrative. Traveling by
train to faraway places in the country is an experience deeply embedded in the
memories of generations of people in the PRC. In the 1990s, the carriages of
trains were often packed with passengers, sometimes filled with people sleeping
underneath the seats or in the hallways. The physical condition of the trains at the
time was not luxurious like the high-speed trains in China today. The experi-
ence of riding trains decades ago was often filled with a sense of adventure, of
going to new and exotic places and an empathy for the people of various social
backgrounds encountered during the journey. The train carriage was a meeting
place, a melting pot, a vehicle that took people to their imagined destinations, and
a platform where people exchanged their stories. Because the nature of a train is
one of movement, on a train, stories were told but not kept, conversations arose
without requiring an enduring friendship, and memories were forged but then
tossed aside. Through the installation Staring into Amnesia, Qiu Anxiong created
the opposite experience of the train rides from the past. By getting on an immo-
bile train carriage, viewers instead of going places, are trapped in a space with an
eternal past, staring at the imagery of the memories, which they may have long
forgotten, consciously or unconsciously.
What kind of memories do we want to carry with us when we embark on a
journey to the future? Does a collective memory even exist for a nation? How
do we live in peace with our past? Perhaps by recreating the physical space of the
train carriage, the artist was tossing these questions back to us. In Qiu’s creation,
the past can portray an equally dystopian world as that in an imagined futurist
universe.
In spring 2018, 12 years after Part I of New Classic of Mountains and Seas was
first exhibited, Part III (Figure 8.4) of the video series was finally completed and
premiered in New York. It took Qiu Anxiong almost four years from 2013 to
2017 to create the work, during which time he focused solely on the new sequel.
At the beginning of the video, the protagonist wears an octopus-shaped mask,
gradually falling from a Chinese landscape utopia located above the clouds into
a cyber world. It is a nightmarish world filled with darkness, where spider-like
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 8.4 New Classic of Mountains and Seas III, ink animation, B &W, length: 27’14”, 2014–2017. © Qiu Anxiong
robots are roaming across ruins in a post-apocalyptic field. As if charged with an

urgent secret mission, the protagonist rides a goat-like scooter through a futur-
istic city, where the shapes of skyscrapers are constructed similarly to those of
Shanghai. He runs on a dragon-like treadmill with dogs racing beneath it on a
conveyer belt acting as the engines of the machine. He plays a video game where
he is the character inside the game fighting with a masked man. The video
portrays a city under surveillance, where the insect-looking cameras record
footage of every movement on each street corner and the policemen watch
behind centralized monitors. The policemen spot the protagonist, destroy his
residence with a dinosaur-like bulldozer and chase him back to the Chinese
landscape utopia. The dystopian story ends as a closed loop that can be replayed
endlessly. Whether all the dangerous encounters are a virtual reality experience
or merely a story in a video game is for the viewer to interpret.
As the last installment of Qiu’s trilogy, the video examines the impact of
technology—the internet, online games and video surveillance in particular—
on our human society. Animals are turned into machines and humans operate in
dark rooms filled with computer screens, monitoring others and being monitored.
The only utopian aspect of this world is depicted in the video as a landscape
with trees, f lowers and rivers. From this utopian world the protagonist plunges
into his hellish adventures. After being chased by the surveillance policemen, he
ends his journey back to utopia. The concept of Samsara in Buddhism is subtly
implied. The video, which was first exhibited before the pandemic, particularly
resonates with us today. When mask-wearing and working in a virtual world
have become our new norm, it is hard for us not to admire the artist’s discerning
portrait of a world as his prophecy and his warning to our society. In the end,
humans become the victims who have to deal with the consequences of our
ambitious remaking of the world.
Qiu Anxiong’s prescient New Classic of Mountains and Seas series, in a way,
explores a new artistic style that creates a virtual transitional world between
heaven and hell. The stories in his videos are so remote from our reality, and yet
they closely touch our experiences derived from reality.
The 2010s, China Academy of Art

In 2010, Lu Yang graduated from the New Media Art Department of China
Academy of Art in Hangzhou, a city about a hundred miles southwest of Shanghai.
At the Academy, he studied under the internationally acclaimed artist Zhang
Peili, who has often been called the “ ‘founding father’ of Chinese video art.”25
Zhang, described by the Guggenheim Museum as “a critical figure in video art
worldwide.”26 was also the founding faculty of the New Media Art Department
at the Academy.
When Zhang created the Department in 2003, he pioneered the earliest new
media art education among all the art academies in China.27 He was the Chair of
the Department for seven years, from 2003 to 2010.28 In an interview at the Art
& Design Education Future Lab held at the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai
in 2019,29 Zhang said that around the year 2000, video art received increasingly
strong attention in the country. “People feel the demands and transformation
of our times. (To provide) an education on new media art became the inevit-
able trend and result (at the time).” One of the incentives for him to create the
Department in the early 2000s was to break the dogmatic teaching models at the
art academies in China. “In the past, Chinese art education did not promote indi-
viduality and individual values very much; it produced students for a function at
work, for a system to serve.” Therefore he expected that the Department would
reinforce an experimental spirit, and “each student should establish a value of
their own, and they should form their own standard of value through their own
judgment.”30 Years later, when Zhang recalled that period of educational experi-
mentation, he admitted that in the end, “we realized that we were in a big
system, and real reform needed to start from the big system. Therefore, the work
we did was actually very limited and insignificant.” He recognized that “if the
big system didn’t change, no matter how good the dream is, it will only be a
dream. I am looking forward to seeing the reform of art education in China so
that one day we can see it truly advance.”31
In retrospect, despite the frustration Zhang encountered after his seven-year
experiment of teaching new media, his approach to bringing innovative changes
to the orthodox system nurtured a new generation of artists whose distinctive
styles pushed digital art creation in China to a new level.
In 2009, one year before Lu Yang graduated from the Academy, he began
researching neurology at the library for a music video Reanimation! Underwater
Zombie Frog Ballet! (6’13”), which was realized two years later with the support
of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, while he was completing an artist
residence at the Museum. The music video showed a series of underwater
dance movements with the bodies of dead frogs, which were manipulated
by Midi signals sent from a Midi controller. The bodies of the frogs were
supplied by a medical lab in Japan that had dissected the frogs for their med-
ical research. Subsequently, they were reused by Lu Yang to create the video.
In the work, the legs of the dead frogs danced so smoothly that they appeared
to have been given a new life by the Midi signals. As one of the breakout
videos by Lu Yang, it explored a complex set of topics such as biology, tech-
nology, life, death, suffering, religion and control, which henceforth became
the recurring themes in Lu Yang’s artistic creation. As the artist wrote in his
statement at the time:
Because of my strong affinity with CONTROL, the control of people and

animals, I have been creating my works by using technology and various
media. Such a control totally relies on the cerebration of human(s), and
they cannot escape from the physiological reality. Yet they use their bodies
to create devices so they can break away from these limitations while they
are being controlled by their physical form or illness.32
Distinctive from many artists of his generation, Lu Yang began to contemplate

the subject matter of death, suffering and the vulnerability of human bodies at a
very young age. In an interview with the New York Times in 2015, after his work
was included in the China Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennial that year, he
revealed that due to the symptoms of asthma during his childhood, he frequently
visited hospitals in Shanghai for treatment when he grew up. The experience
stimulated him to further explore scientific knowledge about the body and the
ideas around the concept. For Lu Yang, the body is a purely objective concept.
There should be no attachment to the body after death.33
In a way, the work Reanimation! Underwater Zombie Frog Ballet set the creative
trajectory for many of Lu Yang’s following artworks. For instance, it examines
the verge of life and death, a theme later explored in the topic of the Buddhist
concept, Bardo, the vulnerability of humans and animals, and the technological
controls of the body and f lesh. The work has also become a catalyst for his long-
term collaboration with artists and institutions in Japan.
In 2011, one year after Lu Yang graduated from the Academy, his creative
works were already drawing wide attention among museum curators and art
critics. In September 2011, one of the leading private museums in China, UCCA
Center for Contemporary Art, founded by Belgian collectors Guy and Myriam
Ullens in 2007 and subsequently acquired by a group of Chinese investors in
2017,34 held a monographic exhibition for Lu Yang. Curated by Zhang Peili,
the exhibition, called Lu Yang: The Anatomy of Rage, showed Lu’s video and
accompanying installation Wrathful Deities. As described in the statement of
UCCA, “Taking Tibetan Buddhism’s wrathful Vajrasattva deity as her protag-
onist, Lu Yang creates a series of 3D animation projections—bolstered by med-
ical diagrams and supporting text—to try to analyze the contradictory nature
of fury and compassion.”35 When explaining the creative approach behind the
work, Lu Yang said:
When the first signs of anger reach the human brain, the information is
first transmitted to the hypothalamus. This activates the amygdalae to carry
out certain processes, which in turn set off a chain reaction by activating
a number of other structures in the brain. These structures are responsible
for transforming nerve signals into visible expressions of anger.36
This combination of Buddhist philosophy, biological research, computer science

and animation has since become a signature oeuvre of Lu Yang’s artistic creation.
While Qiu Anxiong’s interest and research of Buddhism slowly took place after
he graduated from college, Lu Yang developed his fascination with Buddhism
during his childhood. Lu Yang recalled:
I had lots of bad experiences during my childhood that left a deep impres-
sion on me. It was a time full of disease, violence, bullying, loneliness
and helplessness. It seems that people generally have a deeper memory
of unfortunate experiences. It is difficult for me to remember good

experiences. I think my childhood had a huge impact on my creativity…
such experiences shaped my worldview. Some coincidences led me to go
through certain things and eventually I became a professional artist....
One experience was that my junior high school math teacher used cor-
poral punishment on students almost every day. She was a beautiful female
teacher in her early 20s, but she was very abusive and constantly beat
students. Before each math class, we were all very afraid that we would
be verbally abused and beaten by her. At that time, we were not informed
about what was acceptable and as children we were honest. She threatened
that if we dared to report her behavior to our parents or other people, then
she would destroy our lives. It was hard to believe that so many students
silently tolerated her bullying for three years. I was also very afraid of being
beaten by her, so I prayed to Buddha every day on my way to school and
put a small wooden statue of Guanyin (The goddess of mercy) in my desk,
praying every day for Buddha’s blessing not to let her beat me. So, I relied
on faith at that time. People rely on faith when they are really helpless,
praying for a power to save them. My interest in Buddhism also started at
that time.
The grueling experience of studying under the math teacher during his junior
high school years had a deep effect on Lu Yang. Not only had his interest in
Buddhism intensified but also a rebellious spirit was developing. Such a defiant
spirit, combined with the increasingly strong inf luence of Japanese music and
anime culture, eventually provided the ingredients for one of Lu Yang’s most
celebrated videos, Uterus Man (Figure 8.5).
The video was completed in 2013 and has since been broadly exhibited world-
wide and researched by international scholars. In this video (11’20”), the protag-
onist, an asexual warrior called Uterus Man, is dressed in red armor and a red
cape which has an imprint of the word “uterus” in Japanese. The Uterus Man
travels in a pelvis chariot, sometimes skateboarding on a sanitary pad. The video
presents a demonstration of Uterus Man’s superpowers. These superpowers and
tools include Blood Energy Altitude Flying, Blood Cells Attack, Blood-Chain
Defense, Blood Column Attack, XY Chromosome Attack, Ovum Light Wave
Attack, DNA Attack, Deep Throat Laser Cannon, Pelvis Chariot Physical Attack,
Baby Series Attack (Baby Weapon and Baby Beast), Baby Meteor Hammer,
Umbilical Cord Whip, the Placenta Defense at Field, Energy Supplies from
the Placenta, and Gigantic Uterusman. The Uterus Man is an invincible super-
hero. The female reproductive organ and its components become the superhero’s
indestructible armor.
Watching the work, we feel as if we are being absorbed into a virtual world
that takes place inside a female body at a microscopic level. In some scenes, the
biological diagrams are displayed in an overly scientific and animated way and
the artist’s strong sense of humor is fully conveyed. And yet because Uterus Man
FIGURE 8.5 Uterus Man, 2013. © Lu Yang
is asexual, the fact that the different components of the reproductive organ of
the female body are turned into Uterus Man’s weapons does not offer the work a
feminist manifestation. In this work, the baby is an object, a beast and a weapon.
Uterus Man does not have any emotional attachment to it. In fact, as a superhero
who travels, f lies, and fights in solitude, Uterus Man does not appear to have any
emotional attachments. Nor does he reveal his interiority, only demonstrating

his equipment and superpowers.
In the same interview with the New York Times in 2015, Lu Yang discussed
the creative process for developing Uterus Man. The design of the protagonist
was based on Mao Sugiyama, a Japanese artist who had his genitals surgically
removed in March 2012 on his 22nd birthday. Two months later Sugiyama
cooked his genitals and served them at a formal banquet to a group of guests,
each of whom paid $250 for the artist’s banquet.37 When Lu Yang learned more
about Sugiyama’s story, particularly Sugiyama’s opinions against having a gender,
Lu decided to reach out and collaborate with Sugiyama. The character of Uterus
Man was subsequently developed based on Sugiyama’s physical features.
The work has been frequently interpreted by art critics and gender studies
scholars as a symbol of feminism, gender identity and a biological revolution. In
fact, the artist tends not to pigeonhole the work as a statement of gender identity
or a part of the feminist and LGBT movements. Lu Yang often refuses to have the
video included in any feminist-focused or LGBT-focused art exhibitions.
A videogame was subsequently created by Lu Yang. Through the videogame,
viewers are able to fully immerse themselves in the role of Uterus Man. Equipped
with his superpower, they are ready to take on his adventure in the biological
world. Today, the Uterus Man video, the design of the avatar and the videogame
series remain one of Lu Yang’s most radical creations. Its popularity among both
the art scholar’s community and a younger generation of art enthusiasts resides
in its captivating attractiveness at multiple levels. For instance, the work undeni-
ably conveys an enthralling visual appeal, an openness for interpretation, and
a discerning ability to turn one of the most vulnerable human organs into a
spirited warrior. More importantly, by collaborating with Mao Sugiyama and
empowering him with a virtual identity of a god-like superhero endowed with
beauty, courage and superpower, Lu Yang demonstrates his humanity through
this ingenious creation. Deep down, the empathetic, thought-provoking and
aesthetic aspects of Uterus Man are not unlike those of Robert Mapplethorpe’s
photographs.
As Jarrett Earnest wrote in New York Review of Books in June 2022 about Dave
Hickey’s comments on Mapplethorpe’s works:
“beauty”—becomes a double-edged blade: today it is possible for us to

celebrate Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro as foremost an achievement in form
only because its ideological work has been accomplished so completely;
the “beauty” we admire in those paintings was in fact a visual weapon for
changing minds.38
Indeed, the enchanting Uterus Man has become Lu Yang’s compelling visual
weapon for changing minds. Sugiyama who was once charged with indecent
exposure39 in Japan due to his behavior, completed his ultimate transformation
into Uterus Man, invigorating our imagination of the human world.
In 2015, Lu Yang’s video Moving Gods was commissioned by the China Pavilion
of the 56th Venice Biennial. As Xin Wang wrote in the catalogue essay of the China
Pavilion:
Whether a type-cast guardian, Jesus look-a like wearing Tantric symbols,

or a black DJ with wild braids incarnating Shiva, the actors perform iden-
tities as much as their malleability, weaving together an anachronistic tab-
leaux of meta-religiosity that feels squarely planted in the contemporary
world of altered and altering appearances.40
Having the work exhibited at the Venice Biennial that year brought it broad
international attention. Nevertheless, the process of being commissioned by the
China Pavilion, which was overseen by the Ministry of Culture was far from a
pleasant experience. As Lu Yang recalled years later:
All the works in the China Pavilion had to be reviewed by the Chinese
Ministry of Culture. It was the first time that I encountered the situation
of having to submit my works and having the works reviewed by them
again and again during the creative process. I felt pressure like I’d never
felt before. They reviewed a lot of issues that were outside of our percep-
tion, and a lot of things in the work that I didn’t even notice myself, they
pointed out that these things needed to be revised. For example, my char-
acter had some decorations of a naked body with a strap-on, which they
interpreted as looking like sadomasochism. One of my previous versions
had small genitalia, but it was basically covered up with accessories, which
they also discovered. I felt very depressed, and it was a very painful time
because I got calls almost every day during the creative process that I had
to modify the content of my work.
It was at this time Lu Yang started conceiving an idea for another work,
LuYang Delusional Mandala (2015; 16’27”), a video that further explores the fields
of neuroscience, how the brain controls human bodies, and the cycle of life and
death. In retrospect, Lu Yang believes that it was a watershed moment in his
artistic career. When ref lecting on the creative experience of the work, he said:
(LuYang Delusional Mandala) did not need to be vetted by anyone, and it

became an important work for my career thereafter. I let myself go in
making that work, doing what I wanted to do, which was drastically
different from the experience (of making Moving Gods). This work was
exhibited in many countries around the world and was once shown at the
Center Pompidou in Paris. Therefore, such contrasting experiences made
me feel that there is no way of making good works under the pressure of
censorship and that an artist needs to be extremely free inside to create
good works.
FIGURE 8.6 LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment, 2016. © Lu Yang

The philosophical thinking of LuYang Delusional Mandala was further

expanded into his new video in 2016, LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment
(14’37”) (Figure 8.6). It was created based on the resources provided by New York
University Shanghai (NYU Shanghai) Gallery, which facilitated a conversa-
tion between Lu Yang and several leading neuroscientists at NYU Shanghai’s
Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience Summer School. Subsequently,
Lu Yang visited the laboratories of the neuroscientists. The work was produced
based on the inspiration from interdisciplinary discussion and research.
Among the entirety of Lu Yang’s body of works, LuYang Delusional Crime
and Punishment, which carries overwhelmingly grotesque and yet captivating
visual effects, resonates most with Dante’s Inferno. Different from Dante’s Divine
Comedy, the protagonist, “the self,” who has similar facial features to the artist,
and a group of similar-looking anthropomorphic dolls, are trapped in a hellish
world, being tortured for an eternity. In the video, the protagonist and the
anthropomorphic dolls are first created by God and then go through various
stages of torture in hell as a punishment for their sins. Sometimes the brutality
they experience is imposed by Bull Demon King, a monster from traditional
Chinese fairytales. Other times they go through a variety of grueling torments
because their brain and central nervous system, controlled by a computer, stimu-
late their perception of pain.
The video is now in the permanent collection of M+Museum in Hong Kong.
As described by the Museum:
Close-up scenes of cupping—an ancient form of Chinese medicine—open

Lu Yang’s LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment. This visceral, corporeal
imagery starkly contrasts with the narrative that subsequently unfolds: a 3D
printing machine, labeled “HUMAN CREATOR,” prints human organs
and skin. The final product is a humanoid form that resembles a gender-
f luid digital avatar of Lu, which appears seemingly trapped within the
machine’s f latbed. Mass-produced and packaged in boxes labeled “Made
by God,” the avatar jumps between digital worlds. Lu’s nightmarish, multi-
colored mediascape was created in collaboration with the electronic musi-
cian GAMEFACE.41
There is not a single joyful scene in the video, and yet we can fully grasp Lu
Yang’s sense of humor through the work. For instance, the “dozen anthropo-
morphic dolls packed in boxes that read ‘GOD PRODUCTION’ hang on the
wall like commodities ready for consumption,”42 are portrayed as genderless,
with their facial features bearing a similarity to that of the artist. His uncanny
ability to cast a sarcastic spell on humanity by turning himself into an experi-
mental object of torture is extended to a new extreme in the video. The video
incorporates the genre of Japanese horror movies, electronic music, and street
dance. The scenes alternate between the protagonist and the anthropomorphic
dolls being tortured, exercising on gym equipment or conducting a fast-paced
street dance with an electronic music rhythm that injects a restrained comedic
ambiance.
When watching this work, we are overwhelmed with an indescribable set of
simultaneous feelings of curiosity, pain, horror, sympathy, liberty, and hilarity, a
roller-coaster ride for all senses. In the duration of the video of slightly less than
15 minutes, we feel the eternity of time because we experience both the grueling
pain of watching the protagonist, the anthropomorphic dolls suffering and the
irresistible wonder to further explore their miserable fate.
By creating a satanic world where the protagonist transitions through endless
cycles of torments, LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment becomes a mirror
for us to examine our own vulnerability and demise. Perhaps, in the end, there
is no redemption for humanity. The feeling of pleasure we seek and the sense
of pain we try to avoid are merely illusions generated by our brains. As the
video points out, our mental and psychological activities, feelings such as satisfac-
tion, pleasure, desire and pain, are only the result of the human central nervous
system, carried by the vessel that is our f lesh and blood. The Bull Demon King
or a machine could easily manipulate our feelings by controlling our central ner-
vous system and our brains.
Lu Yang’s Uterus Man and LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment, similar
to his latest video DOKU the Self exhibited at the 59th Venice Biennial, are all
permeating with his signature creative philosophy. As Lu Yang explained: “All
my works are related to each other, so I feel that they ref lect and represent my
personal stage of thinking...I just use different tools to express this... I feel that
my thinking or worldview has some degree of linearity.” The fundamental
difference between these works is that in Uterus Man, “the self,” reborn with
a new identity and transitioned through various biological worlds, was Mao
Sugiyama. In LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment, “the self,” was the brain
that holds the central nervous system. Ultimately, LuYang Delusional Crime
and Punishment ref lects the Buddhist philosophy, as described in the Diamond
Sutra: “You feel pain because you have not put your body down. If you have
absolutely no self, no others, no living beings, no life—nothing at all—what
pain is there?”43
Qiu Anxiong and Lu Yang’s artworks, though distinctive in their styles,
deeply interrogate our technology-obsessed society with philosophical thinking
based on Buddhism. Their recent videos, enhanced by computer technology, are
equipped with increasingly captivating visual effects. And yet who would deny
that the most ingenious way to question the limit and the consequence of tech-
nology is to use the tools created by technology itself?
In a way, when Lu Yang ref lected on his art creation throughout his career, he
summarized the essence of both artists’ creative philosophies.
Art is not important to me. I have never thought about how people that
come after us will look at my works. It is very likely that none of them will
look at my works. I have never thought about what kind of legacy I want
to leave for the art world. The world will end one day, but if anyone is
inf luenced by my works, I hope that the inf luence will be inspiring and
positive, and that it will stimulate them to explore the world on a broader,
macro level.
Over the past decade, Qiu Anxiong and Lu Yang have elevated their respective
artistic exploration, through the combination of practicing religion and the inter-
rogation of modern society, to a new creative dimension. Meanwhile, another
artist Zheng Bo, born in Beijing and based in Hong Kong, expands such explor-
ation through his socially and ecologically engaged practice, as he often calls it,
knowing and acting in unity 知行合一.
Notes
1 https://a rtrev iew.com/a rt ist/budi-tek/.
2 https://a aa.org.hk/en/collections/sea rch/l ibra ry/qiu-a nxiong-about-new- classic- of-
mountai ns-a nd-seas-i i-i i.
3 www.metmuseum.org/a rt/col lect ion/search/78470.
6 www.artnews.com/a rt-i n-a mer ica/a ia-reviews/qiu-a nxiong- 62507/.
7 The artist, though being female, prefers to be called he/h im/h is.
8 www.lab i enn a le.org/e n/a rt/ 2 022#:~:text=T he%20Exh i bit i on%20ta k es%20pl
ace%20in,213%20artists%20from%2058%20cou ntr ies.
9 www.thear tnew spaper.com/2 022/0 4/27/t he-women-dominated-ven ice-bienna le-
has-been-crit icised-for-sacr i fici ng-qualit yreveal i ng-just-how-necessa ry-such-prog
ressive-projects-real ly-a re.
10 www.artnews.com/a rt-news/news/ven ice-bienna le-2022-a rt ist-l ist-1234617574/s
11 www.metaobjects.org/work/lu-yang-g iga nt-doku-moscow/.
12 Hsuan Hua, A General Explanation of The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, Chapter 17,
“Ultimately there is No Self,” the Buddhist Text Translation Society of the Sino-
American Buddhist Association, 1974.
13 Hsuan Hua, A General Explanation of The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, Chapter 31,
“Neither Knowing Nor Seeing is Produced,” the Buddhist Text Translation Society
of the Sino-A merican Buddhist Association, 1974.
14 As recalled by Li Songsong when Liu Xiaodong was teaching at CAFA.
15 The peak of the Chinese contemporary art market in the mid-2000s was discussed in
Part II of the book.
16 www.art month ly.co.uk/m agazi ne/site/issue/june-2008.
17 www.aaa-a.org/progra ms/museum-of-u nknown-a-presentation-by-qiu-a nxiong.
18 https://a rtbla rt.com/t ag/stari ng-i nto-a mnesia/.
19 The gallery was renamed as Spurs Gallery in March 2020 after a change of ownership.
20 www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/a rts/design/05fa ir.html.
21 https://a rtbl a rt.com/2 009/0 2/10/e xh i bit ion- utopia- q iu- a nxiong- a t- a rken- mus
eum-of-modern-a rt-denma rk/.
22 www.artfor um.com/picks/qiu-a nxiong-17956.
23 Andrew Cohen, “In Depth: Qiu Anxiong,” ArtAsiaPacific, May/June 2009, (http://
li367-91.members.linode.com/Magazi ne/63).
24 Andrew Cohen, “In Depth: Qiu Anxiong,” ArtAsiaPacific, May/June 2009, (http://
li367-91.members.linode.com/Magazi ne/63).
25 https://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/curated-zhang-peili-lu-yang-a natomy-rage//.
26 www.guggenheim.org/a rtwork/a rtist/zhang-peili.
27 www.ncar t foundat ion.org/people/zhangpei li/.
28 In September 2010, the New Media Art Department, Department of Integrated Arts
and the Department of Curating Art were combined, and a School of Intermedia Art
was created under the Academy (www.woshiqian.com/post/52792.html).
32 https://luya ng.asia/2016/12/10/reanimationunderwater-zombie-f rog-bal let/.
33 www.nyti m es.com/ 2 015/ 11/ 2 7/ w orld/a sia/c hina- a rt- l u- y ang- v en i ce- b ienn
ale.html.
34 www.scmp.com/c ult u re/a rts- entert a inment/a rticle/2114 4 86/ b eiji ng- contem por
ary-a rt-space-ucca-sold-chinese.
35 https://ucca.org.cn/storage/publ ic/i mages/w p/2014/05/CBZPL_ENG_PR1.pdf.
36 https://ucca.org.cn/storage/publ ic/i mages/w p/2014/05/CBZPL_ENG_PR1.pdf.
37 https://a llthatsi nterest i ng.com/m ao-sugiya ma.
38 www.nybooks.com/a rticles/2022/06/23/a-proliferat ion- of-beaut ies- d ave-h ickey/.
39 www.huffpost.com/entry/m ao-sugiya ma-i ndecent-exposure _ n _18974 49.
40 https:// bla ncdex in.com/2 015/07/13/e ssay- on-lu-yang-for-t he-56th-ven ice-bienn
ial-china-pavill ion-catalog ue/.
41 www.mplus.org.hk/en/col lect ion/objec ts/ lu-yang- delu sion al- c rime- a nd-pun i shm
ent-2019147/.
42 https://ica.shanghai.nyu.edu/prog ram/luya ng-delusional-crime-a nd-pun ishment/.
43 Hsuan Hua, “The Reasons for the Dharma Assembly,” Chapter 1 in A General
Explanation of The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, the Buddhist Text Translation Society
of the Sino-A merican Buddhist Association.
9
HONG KONG, PLANTS AND TEN
THOUSAND THINGS
道常无为而无不为。候王若能守之，万物将自化。化而欲作，吾将镇之以无
名之朴，镇之以无名之朴，夫将不欲。不欲以静，天下将自定。
—Dao De Jing, Chapter 37
Venice Biennial, 2022

In June 2022, over a month after the 59th Venice Biennial opened to the public,
Artnet News published a series called the Biennial Artist Project. As part of the
endeavor, the editorial team reviewed all artists who were selected to participate
in the 211 international art events over the past five years since Documenta 14 in
2017. Based on the data, they identified 24 artists whom they named “The Biennial
Stars.” The honorary title meant that these artists were the “biggest biennial stars”
of our time, “who appeared in eight or more biennials in the past five years.”1
Among those listed, there was only one artist from China, the Beijing-born, Hong
Kong-based artist Zheng Bo, whose video, Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärkstallen)
(16’35”) (Figure 9.1), shot in a forest in Sweden in 2021, received widespread praise
at the Venice Biennial.
Different from Lu Yang’s DOKU—Digital Descending also on view at the
Biennial, in which the protagonist DOKU survives an apocalypse and goes through
six incarnations amidst a rapid musical rhythm, Zheng Bo’s Le Sacre du printemps
is slow burning. Five male dancers, all naked, in a remote forest on a gloomy
Nordic spring day, engage in a lengthy sexual encounter with five trees. At first,
they are standing upright, their bodies shaking in ecstasy, prolonged moaning.
They turn upside down, arms holding the bottoms of the trees, their torsos and
legs moving up and down along the tree trunks. There is no music accompanying
the movements. We can only hear the on-and-off voluptuous moaning, the birds
chirping in the background, and the silence in between. The angle of photography
DOI: 10.4324/9781003298540-12
FIGURE 9.1 Zheng Bo, Le Sacre du printemps (Tandvärkstallen), 2021–22. Video (4K,
color, sound), 16 min. Courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong, Plants and Ten Thousand Things 237
inverts, they are upside down, the dancers spin their bodies 180 degrees to be sym-
metrical with the trees. The second half of the video elicits an immersive feeling of
being on another planet. The scattered imagery of the sky in-between trees from
the first half of the video disappears. Emerald green lichen, located at the top of
the screen, is supported by dark brown tree trunks and with branches underneath.
Shades of greens are diffused across the color spectrum with f lesh sporadically
infused into the palette. Human torsos and limbs, as if growing out of the soft,
mossed soils, wave in the air organically and elegantly. The transposed angle of
photography uncannily removes any sense of gravity. Dancers’ bodies appear as
inebriated organisms birthed by trees, waving and f loating in the air.
Taking the opposite creative approach as Lu Yang’s DOKU—Digital Descending,
Zheng Bo’s Le Sacre du printemps enables us to wipe out memories of the tragic
events caused by the pandemic and the harrowing imagery of the Ukraine War.
Or more directly, the video reminds us of the healing power of nature. As the
Chinese name of the video suggested, 春之祭 (Rite of Spring), the spring season
when plants and trees are f lourishing, offers the human species a spiritual passage.
All we need to do is experience nature with our bodies and let the forest envelop
us. As anthropologist Nastassja Martin wrote in her memoir In the Eye of the Wild:
Infants possess something that adults must seek desperately throughout

their lives: a refuge. It is the walls of the womb, with all the nutrients daily
f lowing in, that we sometimes need to rebuild around ourselves. I have a
strange feeling that when we come to grief, the world will try to return
us to that refuge by some stroke of luck; something from elsewhere recalls
us to our inner life by trapping us within some unpromising dead end—
which is actually our salvation.2
The real and yet surreal world of plants that Zheng Bo built throughout his
video, creates a forest womb for us. It is our refuge in a time of turmoil. With the
green “nutrients f lowing in,” we subsequently are able to “rebuild around our-
selves.” This world of plants, in the end, becomes “our salvation.”
This meditative love between humans and other species is not merely fantas-
tical thinking but deeply ref lected in Daoist literature. As Ken Chen wrote in The
Yale Review in September 2022 about the 4th-century BC Daoist philosopher:
Zhuangzi’s famous dream that he became a butterf ly.... This dream, per-
haps the most famous in the history of philosophy, gave the Daoist philoso-
pher an ontological shock. Was he a human dreaming of being a butterf ly
or a butterf ly dreaming of being the funniest philosopher of all time? The
answer is both.3
Indeed, in Zheng Bo’s dream-like video Le Sacre du printemps, the dancers and
the artist himself have become the trees in the forest and trees have become the
dancers. The categorical borderlines of species are dissolved.
Berlin, 2021
The official website of the Venice Biennial provided a brief introduction to
Zheng Bo’s artistic practice: “Zheng Bo is committed to all-inclusive, multi-
species relationships. Through a socially and ecologically engaged art practice,
he forges an alternative path that de-emphasizes a human-centric worldview and
strives instead for interconnectedness between all living beings.”4
As a matter of fact, de-emphasizing “a human-centric worldview,” though
widely discussed in the contemporary art world in recent years, is deeply rooted
in the philosophical thinking of Zheng Bo, a believer and practitioner of Daoism.
Daoism, as described by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Human social dàos are natural behaviors of natural animals. This grounds
Zhuangzi’s pattern of talking about and with other equally natural
creatures.... Humans are as natural as monkeys, birds, and fish.5
In Daoism, the universe is not human centered. As an artist and teacher, Zheng
Bo immerses both his artistic creation and pedagogical activities in this phil-
osophy. Fundamentally, viewers of Zheng Bo’s works or participants in his plant-
focused workshops, do not have to be equipped with a profound knowledge of
Daoism to understand his art or follow his practice. What matters is the humble-
ness, curiosity and reverence for nature and the living beings around us. As Barry
Lopez wrote in his essay Love in a Time of Terror, the approach to “open a conver-
sation with any unfamiliar landscape” is to “establish mutual trust, become vul-
nerable to the place, then hope for some reciprocity and perhaps even intimacy.”6
From June to August 2021, Gropius Bau, a contemporary art museum in
Berlin, held a monographic exhibition of Zheng Bo’s works, Zheng Bo: Wanwu
Council. Wanwu, a Daoist word, means “ ‘ten thousand things’ or ‘myriad
happenings’ and embraces the infinite possibilities of life in all its forms.” 7 Based
on Zheng Bo’s residence at the Museum in 2020, the exhibition presented the
artist’s hundreds of drawings as his daily engagement with the lives of plants
during the pandemic and his interdisciplinary discussions with ecologists and
biologists on the political aspects of plant life.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the Museum invited the public
to participate in Zheng Bo’s daily Ecosensibility Exercises, which took place on a
platform built on the grounds of the Museum called Gropius Wood. On view
in the gallery were videos that included instructions for these exercises. There
were six exercises including Drinking Sun Exercise (15 minutes), Drawing Weeds
Practice (60 minutes), Collecting Tree Qi (90 minutes), Maypole Dance (60
minutes), Sacred Grove Ritual (60 minutes), and Grass Wood Song (15 minutes).
For instance, in the Drinking Sun Exercise, which was taught to Zheng Bo by
indigenous artist Joulia Strauss, the participants are instructed to face the sun,
then close their eyes, breathe in slowly, let the sun fill their body and then breathe
out slowly. In the Drawing Weeds Practice, participants are instructed to walk in
silence, when they feel weeds speak to them, sit with the weeds, and draw the lives
of weeds. In the Sacred Grove Ritual, which was designed based on “a Japanese
ritual honoring trees as sacred beings,”8 participants are instructed to tie a rope to
a tree in the grove, transform paper into signs, decorate the rope with signs, as a
ritual of marking the sacredness of the grove.
Such exercises can easily be memorized and conducted by individuals in an
urban city with groves or in nature. Though simple and even as effortlessly
as they might appear, ultimately, they enable us to open the full array of our
senses, pay attention and immerse ourselves in communicating with the plants
surrounding us. They offer an uncanny passage to deeply connect with the Earth
and feel an unspoken pleasure of intimacy.
The mesmerizing feeling from these exercises can be described by Nastassja
Martin’s writing: “it’s about making of ourselves the place, the ecosystem where
those we have chosen—or who have chosen us—become, beyond the gulfs that
divide them, commensurable.”9
As an instrumental element of the exhibition, these Ecosensibility Exercises
ref lect Zheng Bo’s philosophy of creating and practicing art in which engage-
ment with the public has been a crucial component. Accompanying the videos
that demonstrated the exercises, the Museum exhibited 366 plant drawings
Zheng Bo created from 2020 to 2021 at different locations as he did his daily
walk and observed the plants around him. There are drawings of plants from
when he hiked around his residence on Lantau Island Hong Kong, trees from
outside of his window while he was completing his residency at Gropius Bau in
Berlin, and the vegetation that was around the Plötzensee lake near Berlin. The
year-long practice of drawing leaves (Figure 9.2) is grouped by the 24 solar terms
of the lunar calendar.
The set of plant drawings is now in the permanent collection of Li Lin, an
art collector and the founder of Art Matters, a private museum in Hangzhou
China designed by Renzo Piano. Taken holistically, their significance has gone
far beyond a plein air artistic creation. Philosophically the works are not unlike
the thinking behind The Classic of Mountains and Sea, which perceived the world
from the perspective of other living beings. While humans around the world
were struggling with the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, how did trees, weeds and
other plants perceive the world? How did they react to the shift of sunlight and
changes in seasons? And how did they live through the year while human beings
were battling for their lives? Zheng Bo’s drawings provide us with a lens to see
the world through the vantage point of plants.
Furthermore, these 366 drawings elicit a sense of humbleness among viewers.
The Plötzensee lake was formed during the last ice age. Plants and soil around
the lake perhaps are much more fastened to the memory of the past centuries
than human beings. Looking at the drawings of the vegetation around the lake,
we naturally feel a connection with the Earth in the remote past and its resilient
healing ability. Simone Weil once said: “Attention is the rarest and purest form
of generosity. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” By giving continuous,
newgenrtpdf
Bo, Drawing Life, 2020–2021. Pencil on paper, 366 drawings, 29.7 x 21 cm each. Courtesy of the artist and
FIGURE 9.2 Zheng
Kiang Malingue (Hong Kong)
meticulous attention to the plants around him and presenting them to the viewers
in an assiduous way, Zheng Bo shares his generosity in the purest form with the
viewers. Through these drawings, we are able to travel to the hills of Lantau
Island, the woods near Gropius Bau and the Plötzensee lake to observe how plant
life has evolved around the 24 solar terms. These Earthy organisms are speaking
with us via the artist’s hands. They are nature’s sacred reminder that in the worst
period of the pandemic when human society was filled with isolation, loneliness
and despair, plant life was always surrounding us and speaking to us. We need
only to pay attention, communicate and develop companionship with them.
The final component of the exhibition included three short videos, called
The Political Life of Plants. In the first black-a nd-white video, nearly 15 minutes
long, Zheng Bo has a conversation with Berlin-based biologist Matthias Rillig,
whose expertise is the ecology of plants. They discuss how plants and fungi
form a symbiotic relationship that has benefited them during their hundreds
of millions of years of evolution. In contrast, the human species has short-
sighted concepts such as “independence” and “annual targets,” which result
in our own demise. With the sound of the conversation in the background,
the video shows the imagery of the UNESCO World Heritage site Grumsin,
an ancient forest in Brandenburg, Germany. In the second black-a nd-white
video, slightly over seven minutes long, the artist converses with scientist
Roosa Laitinen, whose specialty is the molecular mechanisms of plant adap-
tation. With the video displaying the image of a lakeside forest at Briese in
Birkenwerder, Germany, the discussion centers on how plants, though they
cannot roam around, evolved the superior ability of adaptation while humans,
with the ability to move around, are less f lexible in terms of adaptability
for survival on the planet. The third video, slightly over nine minutes long,
shows the variety of plants in the forest up close and gradually transitions from
black-a nd-white to colored images of plants. At the end of the video, the over-
whelmingly green colors of different plant leaves dominate the screen.
The video series, combined together, reveals the intellectual weight of Zheng
Bo’s plant-based artistic creation and practice. In a way, they encourage us to
interrogate the existing knowledge frameworks and concepts of the human
species, including politics, survival, independence, cognitive ability and f lexi-
bility. In comparison, we can think about how limited these concepts appear
when we begin to examine the evolutional history of fungi and plants. After
further contemplating the subjects discussed in the videos, we may even start to
doubt the future of humanity. Will our technological inventions result in our
own demise? Is the ability to move around as crucial to our survival as we tend to
believe? Is our obstinance for insisting on absolute independence costing us our
ability to form a symbiotic relationship with other organisms?
The last video, without any human voices, only loud natural sounds captured
in the forest, portrays a post-apocalyptic scene. There is no trace of mammals,
only plants and sporadic evidence of insects. Taking these videos sequentially, we
develop a sense that the artist and the science researchers, who have given human
beings a revelation of their unresolvable limitations, also vanish with the rest of
the human species.
It is a post-human world, a world dominated by plants. Plants with their
stems and f lourishing leaves. At the end of the video, the plants are the ultimate
survivors. The imagery of their leaves in invigorating green colors occupies the
screen.
Is it the artist’s warning? Is it his prophecy? Is it his metamorphosis into plants
as Zhuangzi turned into a butterf ly? It is for the viewer to interpret.
Madrid, 1996
Born in Beijing in 1974 to a family of science teachers, Zheng Bo currently
resides in Hong Kong and teaches at the School of Creative Media at the City
University of Hong Kong. Compared with the other four artists in Part III, his
career trajectory has been drastically different. After graduating from high school
in China, he went to the United States to study Computer Science in 1993 and
graduated from Amherst College in 1999 with two degrees, one in Computer
Science and the other in Fine Arts. He did not seriously practice techniques
or contemplate the meaning of art until 1996 when he spent one semester in
college as an exchange student in Madrid. At the time, his teacher in Spain took
students to the Prado Museum every week and taught them the essence of art
by looking at paintings in front of them. Although it was not a studio art course
and the students were not taught to paint, as Zheng Bo recalled a quarter of a
century later, it was a transformative experience for him. The impact of the
teaching was so profound that he would go back to the Prado Museum every
weekend and look at the paintings over and over again. As a result, he visited
the Prado twice a week for over 3 months in Madrid in 1996. Today he still
clearly remembers where the important paintings in the Museum’s permanent
collection are located, as well as the composition of these artworks “as if they
were my friends or neighbors.”
The teacher helped Zheng Bo better understand the meaning of being an
artist. What inf luenced him most was learning about the life of Diego Velázquez.
For the first time, I started to understand the life of an artist. Also, the life
of an artist as an intellectual because Velázquez was never satisfied with
just being a craftsperson. He really aspired to be an artist-intellectual. As a
17th-century painter, he was quite experimental (for the time). He didn’t
overproduce. He made less than 100 paintings. And he was quite a meth-
odical person. That’s the starting point for me to understand what it meant
to be an artist....
(What the teacher taught us) was really about looking, about seeing. He
helped us understand how Velázquez decided what to paint. It’s not only
about techniques. It’s also about his social and political sensibilities.
One of Zheng Bo’s favorite paintings by Velázquez is his portrait of his

assistant Juan de Pareja, now in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.10
Velázquez painted the portrait when he was asked by the Pope to go to

Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope. So, Velázquez went to Rome with
his assistant and painted Juan de Pareja before he painted the Pope. The
portraiture had the same dignity as how Velázquez painted the Pope. Every
time I visit New York, I would go to the Met to see this painting.
Coincidentally, during Li Songsong’s undergraduate study at the oil painting

department at CAFA in the early 1990s, the first European painting he chose
to copy in his Painting Technique class was Velázquez’s portraiture of Juan de
Pareja. The copy was made based on a printed version in a catalogue. Although
he did not see the original painting until years later, the imagery of the painting
conveyed a transcending power to him. Li Songsong used a Chinese idiom to
portray Velázquez’s vision as an artist, eyes like burning torches 目光如炬, a word
which describes a mind full of knowledge and wisdom. Perhaps it was Velázquez’s
empathy for humanity that inf luenced both artists’ creative development over
the decades.
After Zheng Bo returned to the US from Madrid, he started to paint, mostly
portraitures of his friends at Amherst College. The paintings were executed
through live sessions, in which his friends sat in front of him as his models. On
one occasion, his fencing teammate sat for him for two hours a weekend for
ten consecutive weekends. What he realized after painting these portraitures
was that during the process, he got to better know his friends through long
conversations. The experience:
led me to the next phase of my practice. So, when I went to graduate

school, I thought I was going to do more paintings but I realized that
I was actually more interested in conversations that I was having (with
the subjects). So, I thought, why don’t I just focus on conversations? That
became my relational practice. I started to use video cameras to document
some of the conversations.
In retrospect, the brief period studying in Madrid, deeply engaging with

Velázquez’s works in 1996, laid the foundation for Zheng Bo’s artistic evo-
lution over the coming decades. On the one hand, through learning about
Velázquez’s life, he recognized that to be an excellent artist it is more than just
technique, an intellectual pursuit is imperative. On the other hand, by looking
at and contemplating Velázquez’s paintings with compassion, he found com-
passion for others in himself. Although Zheng Bo’s creative development over
the following 25 years experienced different stages of transformation; his
drive, intellectual pursuit and his curiosity and empathy for the lives of others
stayed consistent. These lives of others included a vast spectrum of subjects
such as his own family members who experienced chaotic events in China
in the 20th century; Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong
who have been marginalized in society; socially engaged artists in mainland
China whose works focused on the underprivileged; the queer community in
Taiwan; and the forests of Thailand, Germany and Sweden. Although Zheng
Bo’s relational practice in art appears distinctive from the other four artists
portrayed in the section, in fact, a continuous drive for intellectual devel-
opment and compassion for others are the commonalities of all five artists.
Evidence of such is ref lected throughout their decades of artistic creation.
It was also in college that Zheng Bo began to come to terms with his own
identity as a homosexual. Today the subject matter of LGBT is still a taboo topic
in the state press in the PRC. Back in the 1990s information on the subject was
basically non-existent. While in high school in Beijing, Zheng Bo thought that
he was not attracted to girls “because I didn’t think (of ) them (as) good-looking.”
Only when he came to the United States for undergraduate studies did he begin
to recognize that he was more interested in men. “I read many books on homo-
sexuality to learn about the topic in college.” It was easy to find material on
the subject and to educate himself in the US. During his senior year, he started
dating. In hindsight, the experience of enriching himself with knowledge and
discovering his own identity in the US, provided him with the liberty to further
explore the topic later in his artistic career. It also enabled him to realize that
intimacy and sex are a way for us to better understand others, the world around
us, and eventually ourselves.
After graduating from college in 1999, Zheng Bo spent four years working for
Bain & Company as a management consultant. He enjoyed the job and the inter-
national travel that came with it. He did not create any artworks during those four
years but was constantly contemplating going back to graduate school to further
study art. In 2003 he quit his job at Bain and enrolled in the MFA program at
the Chinese University of Hong Kong. From 2003 to 2006, the program fur-
ther assisted Zheng Bo to reckon with his identity. After subsequently spending
six years attaining a PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of
Rochester, United States, he decided to come back to China and eventually settled
down in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, 2003–2006; Lantau Island, 2013 and Onward

Whereas the mid-2000s was a peak period for international exposure and a
market surge for many contemporary artists in Beijing, for the artist community
in Hong Kong, it was a relatively quiet time. When Zheng Bo started his MFA
study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, it was the only graduate program
available in Hong Kong that taught studio art and it only admitted two graduate
students a year.
At the time Hong Kong was a tiny space in terms of (contemporary) art.
Almost all the artists in Hong Kong graduated from the MFA program
at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. By studying there I was in the
local network and met lots of artists. And Hong Kong did not have many
curators at the time. As students, we would just organize exhibitions at the
University. The art world in Hong Kong then was quite spontaneous and
was not well developed. It was very easy to show things.
Zheng Bo was expected to continue learning painting, but as an MFA student

older than his classmates, he was permitted by his supervisor to explore other
art forms that he found more enjoyable. It became obvious to him that having
conversations was a more engrossing approach to artistic creation. At the univer-
sity library, he came across Grant Kester’s book Conversation Pieces, Community
and Communication in Modern Art.
It was a coincidence that I saw this book in the library. Reading that book
gave me a huge revelation because he (Kester) described the type of work
that I was doing but I didn’t know (what I had been doing) lots of artists
were already doing, like Suzanne Lacy. And there’s actually a name for it.
The things I had been doing (were) called, socially engaged art. Only after
reading the book I knew how to call my work.
This stimulated him to continue developing his conversation-focused creative

approach.
Zheng Bo had always been interested in the topic of migrant workers. One
day he visited a friend’s family in Hong Kong. He noticed that the friend’s
mother asked her Filipino maid to stay in the kitchen even after the maid finished
her job. The maid was not allowed to leave the kitchen and watch television
with the host family. In Hong Kong, it is common for Filipino and Indonesian
maids to live with a host family. The maids’ living conditions at their host family
can be extremely humble. Some have to live in the closets of their host family.
They work long hours and get one day off on Sundays. In Hong Kong, over a
typical weekend, the public squares will be filled with groups of Filipino and
Indonesian maids, sitting with friends and having lunch together. It is a scene of
migrant workers enjoying their only day of the week off and a phenomenon that
shows how separated they are from their host families and treated as second-class
visitors. According to a report in Ming Pao in 2005, “The Department of Social
Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that 67% of South Asian
immigrants believed they were discriminated against by the Hong Kong Chinese
in various aspects.”11 Even today, these migrant workers are not “allowed to settle
permanently in Hong Kong after residing here for over seven years, a period that
would ordinarily qualify foreigners to become permanent residents.”12
Witnessing how his friend’s mother treated their domestic helper, Zheng Bo
was appalled. “When I grew up in mainland China at the end of the socialist
period, in my mind, people (were) equal. I was shocked to see how my friend’s
mother treated her maid.” This experience stimulated him to create a multi-
media artwork Happy Meals. He visited six families in Hong Kong and asked the
families to allow him to speak with their domestic helpers. Then he asked the
domestic helpers to tell him a joke.
Because their identity was defined purely as workers in the household.

Telling a joke (would be something) people do when they were hanging
out with friends, or those they were enjoying hanging out with. So it’s a
very small gesture to get beyond what they normally do.
At the final installation exhibited at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in

2004, videos that recorded the migrant workers telling jokes were projected
into a bowl, “because their relationship with their employers was often through
a meal.” A printout of the English and Chinese bilingual Happy Meal Menu
was exhibited along with the bowl. The menu showed profile pictures of each
domestic helper and information on their home countries, how long they had
lived in Hong Kong and the transcript of their jokes. Happy Meals was the starting
point of several of Zheng Bo’s artistic projects where he worked with people who
were at the margins of urban society.
Another installation, Sing for Her (Figure 9.3), first shown at Hanart Square in
Hong Kong in 2013 and a new version commissioned by the Hong Kong Museum
of Art in 2015, brought deeper engagement with the public on issues related
to migrant workers as a politically and culturally marginalized group in Hong
Kong. The installation in 2015 was situated at the Hong Kong Cultural Center
in Tsim Sha Tsui, a busy commercial district in the city. To create this installa-
tion, Zheng Bo recorded seven songs with community groups and worked with
each group to choose a song that they liked. Then he recorded the community’s
performance singing the song at a location that they were familiar with. The
installation included a speaker in the shape of a rusty, gigantic cone, which had
a karaoke-style TV on top. The public would see an invitation on the TV that
would encourage them to shout. The sound of their shouting would activate
the TV to play the pre-recorded music videos. The participants would have to
sing along, following the musical melodies and lyrics. If they did not sing along,
the music video would stop. In this way, the pedestrians who were attracted to
the public installation would understand more about the culture of the migrant
worker community by learning their songs and singing with them. In the Journal
of Contemporary Chinese Art in September 2018, Frank Vigneron wrote:
Not only was the work conceived during discussion sessions with members
of these associations but many of the women singing in the video actually
came to the opening of this show. The discussions with Filipino domestic
workers who participated in the creation of Sing for Her with Zheng Bo
were also a way to let individuals manifest their ideas about what it means
to be part of a minority community in a place such as Hong Kong.13
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 9.3 Zheng Bo, Sing for Her, 2013–15. Interactive installation, dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the artist
Zheng Bo’s research and practice in socially engaged art stimulated him to
create an online archive in 2014 to document such projects in contemporary
China. The website, hosted by the City University of Hong Kong, is http://seach
ina.net/. The website also functions as an online course on socially engaged art
in China which includes case studies, interviews with artists and lectures on how
socially engaged art in China is practiced differently from the West. The 16 case
studies cover a wide variety of socially engaged art projects over the previous two
decades in the PRC. They include a same-sex-couple wedding staged by LGBT
activists at Qianmen (near Tiananmen Square) where leaf lets calling on support
for LGBT rights in China were distributed, a three-artist New Worker Art
Troupe which gave performances for migrant workers at construction sites, and
a photography workshop organized by an artist to engage with the residents in
poverty who lived in a neighborhood surrounded by construction sites and were
reluctant to relocate due to compensation disputes with real estate developers.
The website, serving as a platform for documentation and a center for education
on this aspect of Chinese contemporary art that has often been overlooked, is
increasingly more valuable today. Given the current state of stringent ideological
censorship, many socially engaged art projects practiced two to three decades ago
would be challenging to carry forward in today’s environment.
Over the summer of 2013, the focal point of Zheng Bo’s creative production
took another significant turn. Since then, the majority of his artistic attention has
been centered around plants, nature and ecology. As he wrote in 2020:
A patch of vibrant weeds on the former site of the Shanghai Cement

Factory—now known as the West Bund—woke me up in the summer of
2013. Plants, insects, and soil called me into action, claiming the site as my
artwork so that it would not be bulldozed and paved over to become a plaza
for human-only concerts. Since then, for every project, I claim only half of
the credit. The other half belongs to plants and friends.14
The transition in Zheng Bo’s creative direction a decade ago, which appears
drastic on the surface, ref lects the artist’s contemplation of deep issues facing
human society. Being an artist who has empathy for the marginalized portion
of human society, what he experienced in Shanghai in 2013 was a wake-up call
for him: that plants and nature have been relegated to the status of inconsequen-
tial participants of human-centered urbanization. In 2015, he created the first of
his three-part series, Survival Manual. He hand-copied a book called Shanghai’s
Wild Edible Plants, a book published by the CCP in Shanghai in 1961 to pro-
vide information on edible plants that were essential for people’s survival from
the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962). In 2016 and 2019
respectively, he extended the Survival Manual series by hand-copying the edible
plant books published by the Japanese in Taiwan in March 1945 and Bikosomoku
zu (Famine Preparation Botanical Drawings) published in 1833 during the famines
of the Edo period in Japan. This series, painstakingly created through the artist’s
hand-d rawing process, not only brings back the memories of those tumultuous
historical events but also explores the intertwining relationship between human
society and nature that has been vital to the survival of our species.
Zheng Bo’s examination of de-anthropocentrism was further exemplified at
his site-specific installation at the first Thailand Biennial in 2018. In the forest of
Thanbok Khorani National Park located near the southeastern coast of Thailand,
he created a slogan made by native plants hung between trees as if they were
suspended in mid-air. The sentence, “Life is hard. Why do we make it so easy?”
was revised based on the original from a Ted Talk in August 2011 by a Thai farmer
and co-founder of Pun Pun Sustainable Living Learning Center in Chiang Mai,
Jon Jandai, “Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard?”15 Through twisting the
title of Jandai’s renowned lecture, Zheng Bo’s installation pointed out the deeper
complex issues with the human relationship with nature. Survival for any species
during the long evolution of our planet has never been easy. However, “some of us
humans have made our own lives too easy while making the lives of other beings,
human and nonhuman, extremely difficult.”16 When visitors walked through the
forest, they would gradually discover each word of the sentence, made by plants,
hanging in the air, revealing in front of them, word by word the riddle is solved. It
became a rite of passage in the visitors’ exploration of the forest. In retrospect, this
metaphorical artwork turned out to be the artist’s prophecy of a human-centered
society, right before the outbreak of the pandemic.
From 2013 onward, Zheng Bo has been continuously extending his ecology-
focused art practice geographically, from China, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand to
the UK, France, the US, Germany, and Sweden. The protagonists in his videos
have expanded from queer actors in Taiwan to dancers in Sweden to scientists
in Germany. His creative approach has portrayed human interaction with
nature in a holistic way: some erotic and intimate, like the sexual encounters
in the video shown at the 59th Venice Biennial, others rational and contempla-
tive like conversations with scientists, and pedagogical and meditative like the
Ecosensibility Exercises.
As Zheng Bo wrote in the same essay in 2020: “It is time that we define art
not as human-only ‘creation’ but the vibrancy of ten thousand beings.”17 The
expansion of Zheng Bo’s socially engaged art to ecologically engaged art, in a
way, has demonstrated his interrogation of the human species’ ability to revere
and embrace nature.
Among all his ecology-focused artworks over the past decade, the series that
has attracted the broadest acclaim internationally is his series of videos that he
started creating in 2016: Pteridophilia (Figure 9.4). Shot in a forest in Taiwan once
a year, the video series shows queer Asian protagonists engaging with plants
sexually, overcome with ecstasy. The plants vary in each episode. In 2021, the
5th installment of the video Pteridophilia 5 (9’52”), was exhibited at the Liverpool
Biennial as a commission by the Biennial, together with the previous four
episodes. The Biennial described the series as “pushing the boundaries of sexu-
ality and love to incorporate the natural world.”18
newgenrtpdf
FIGURE 9.4 Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 1, 2016. Video (4K, color, sound), 17 min. Courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue
(Hong Kong)
The duration of each episode varies from over 20 minutes to under 10 minutes.
There is no clear storyline in each episode, nor music, but the sounds of the
forest. In every video, the imagery of the plants in the forest is exuberating. The
visibly sensual pleasure that the human protagonists gain through their sexual
engagement with plants is intoxicating. The cinematography creates a desire
to experience the video without descriptive language, and a standard means of
rationalization cannot explain our reaction. Instead, we just open all the senses
and let these senses embrace the viewing experience on their own. This approach
can be best described by Barry Lopez in his essay The Invitation on learning from
the indigenous people of experiencing a landscape deeply: “no immediate need
to resolve it into meaning…let it continue to unfold. To notice everything and
to let whatever significance was there emerge in its own time.”19
The queer identity of the humans in these videos matters, but fundamen-
tally does not matter. In the end, the video series is about how much we as a
human species can open ourselves to nature and immerse one of our most pri-
vate and sacred emotions in nature, making a true connection. Deep down,
Zheng Bo’s Pteridophilia series is more political than his earlier socially engaged
artworks because it disrupts the existing boundaries of how humans are defined.
Because of this, any conventional endeavor to label the series would be destined
to fall short of fully grasping its complexity. Even though we can’t appropriately
describe it fully, the beauty of the imagery in the videos is profoundly mesmer-
izing. As viewers, we can almost feel the moisture and the texture of the plant
leaves touching our skin. The abundance of green in the forest offers an extraor-
dinary feast for the eyes.
Pteridophilia 5, commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial in 2021, though
the shortest in duration, appears the most radical and mature video among the
series. As described by the artist as a piece that “connects spores and sperms,”20
human faces, limbs and torsos, are for the first time not displayed in this sequel.
Instead, we can only see the up-close sexual encounters between human beings
and plants. Visually we are able to make out human skin underneath the fern
leaves, illuminated under the sunlight with geometric shadows in the shape of
leaves. We can hear the gentle sound of leaves softly moving along the skin.
From time to time, the imagery of human f lesh becomes blurry in the fore-
ground and patterns of the leaves reveal themselves sublimely. The leaves have
a tranquil stillness and appear ethereal and light under the sun. The patterns of
the leaves and the spores demonstrate a baroque beauty, so breathtaking that you
are overwhelmed and left feeling mesmerized. Rather than paying attention to
the human performer in the video, our mind is absorbed in admiration for the
beauty of plants as a creation of nature. At the end of the film, seminal f luid
gently drips down the plants, enveloping spores and eliciting a smooth and illu-
minating texture. Sperms and spores are infused, bonding together.
As Zheng Bo’s most thought-provoking and political work, Pteridophilia is
also one of his most celebrated art creations. The work has been exhibited at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, Manifesta in Palermo Italy, the Liverpool
Biennial, the Biennale of Sydney, the Taipei Biennial, the Yokohama Triennial,
the Hawaiʻi Triennial, Gropius Bau, among other international institutions. It
elevates our sensibility about plants, nature and their intertwined existence with
the human species to a new dimension. As we watch the queer performers slowly
develop an intimacy with the plants in the forest, we feel the invigorating colors
of the forest gradually enveloping our bodies. The work awakens a transcending
visual experience. Through this experience, our bodies guide our minds to a
profound reverence of the Earthy wonder.
Zheng Bo’s Pteridophilia resonates with his conversation with biologist Matthias
Rillig in the video The Political Life of Plants. Perhaps, the artist’s Pteridophilia
series, with its beauty and ambiguity, points out a way of survival for humanity.
That is, to form a symbiotic relationship with nature. Sexual engagement with
the plants, the consistent theme carried throughout all five episodes, conveys the
artist’s metaphorical message calling for our attention and love of nature. At a
time when human society is struggling with the pandemic and environmental
disasters, to have nature nurturing us, mentally and physically, is the ultimate
salvation for the human species. All we need to do is to remove our conventional
boundaries and be attentive. And above all, have empathy and love for all living
beings.
As Barry Lopez wrote in his essay, Love in a Time of Terror: “Is it still pos-
sible to face the gathering darkness and say to the physical Earth, and to all its
creatures, including ourselves, fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you,
and to embrace fearlessly the burning world?”21
The answer is held in each and every one of us.
Notes
1 https://news.artnet.com/a rt-world/bienn ial-a rtists-17-profi les-2127298.
2 Nastassja Martin, “In the Eye of the Wild,” New York Review of Books, 2021.
3 https://yalerev iew.org/a rticle/chen- d ictee-i ntroduct ion- cha.
4 www.labienna le.org/en/a rt/2022/m ilk-d rea ms/zheng-bo.
5 https://plato.stanford.edu/entr ies/zhuang zi/.
6 Barry Lopez, Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, Penguin Random House, 2022.
7 www.berl iner fest spiele.de/en/ berli ner-fest spiele/progra mm/ bfs-gesa mtprogra mm/
program mdet ail_ 333397.html.
8 www.berl iner fest spiele.de/en/g ropiusbau/progra mm/2 021/zheng-bo/ausstel lung ste
xte.html.
9 Nastassja Martin, “In the Eye of the Wild,” New York Review of Books, 2021.
11 https://g o.gale.com/p s/i.do?id= GALE%7CA563 683 626&sid=g oogle S chol ar&v=
2.1&it=r&lin k acce ss=a bs&issn=2 05170 41&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupNa me=
tel_oweb&isGeoAuthTy pe=t rue.
12 www.reut e rs.com/a rtic le/u s-hongkong- m aids/ hong- kongs- forei gn- m aids- lose-
legal-bat t le-for-residency-idUSBR E92O04520130325.
13 https://g o.gale.com/p s/i.do?id= GALE%7CA563 683 626&sid=g oogle S chol ar&v=

2.1&it=r&lin k acce ss=a bs&issn=2 05170 41&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupNa me=
tel_oweb&isGeoAuthTy pe=t rue.
14 Zheng Bo, “Art as Multispecies Vibrancy,” ArtAsiaPacific, July 2020.
15 www.jon-jand ai.com/media-2/i ndex.html.
16 https://zhengbo.org/2018_ LIH.html.
17 Zheng Bo, “Art as Multispecies Vibrancy,” ArtAsiaPacific, July 2020.
18 www.bienn ial.com/2021/exhibition/a rtists/zheng-bo.
20 http://zhengbo.org/2021_ PP5 _v ideo.html.
INDEX
Note: Page numbers in italic refers to Figures. Endnotes are indicated by the page number
followed by “n” and the note number e.g., 25n3 refers to note 3 on page 25.
9th Beijing International Art Biennial 92 transformation of xi; see also future
14th Five-Year Plan for the Development direction for the market
of the Culture Industry 160–163 art collecting, modern history of 18–19
20th Party Congress 77 art criticism see critics/criticism
59th International Art Exhibition of La art fairs 40, 52–53, 62, 64; Beijing
Biennale di Venezia 214 Contemporary Art Expo (BCAE) 77–78
105 shots (Li Songsong) 201, 202, 203 ART HK 45
798 Contemporary Art District, artificial intelligence, collaborations
Beijing 41 with 70
4531 (Li Songsong) 201 art investment funds 39–40
arts and culture, role in China: 10th/
Ai Song 96 11th CFLAC congresses, Xi Jinping’s
Ai Weiwei 88, 104n23, 120, 147, 199, 200, speeches at 127–129; 11th Congress
209 of CFLAC 109–110, 111; art criticism
antiquities shops, state-owned 18–25, 125–126; awards for artists 128; career
26n13; Duo Yun Xuan auction house advancement for artists 124–125, 128;
19–25; first auction 23–24, 29; sales of China Federation of Literary and Art
artworks 21; sourcing of artworks 20; Circles (CFLAC) 111; economic growth,
unrestituted artworks, sales of to 22 contribution to 114; high values of state-
archery technique used by Li Songsong endorsed art 113–114; leadership of
200–201, 202, 203 literary and arts units 123–125, 127; Mao
Art021 52 on 112–113, 114; Opinions on promoting
art academies: infrastructure of state art the normalization and long-term effectiveness
system 139, 140, 150–153; presidents of, of party history learning and education 116;
links with CAA 148–149 party leadership 122–123; patriotism
art and antiquities market: 2012 to today 122–123; Project to Explore the Source
46–56; early development (1993-2003) of Chinese Civilization 131–132;
29–37; explosive growth (2004-2011) Resolution of the Central Committee of the
37–44; future for 57–58; growth of 3, 17, Community Party of China on the major
24–25, 159; learning about 55; reasons achievement and historical experience of the
for growth of 3; starting point for 22; Party’s century-long struggle 108–109, 112;
Index 255
responsibilities of artists and writers 108, censorship: criteria for display of artworks
118–119, 127; rigidity of ideological 81, 159–160; forbidden subjects 159–160;
control 113; rural revitalization 122; parallel state/market systems 80–82; self-
serving the people 121–122; social censorship 89; True Love (Li Songsong)
benefits of artworks 119–121; strategic 178, 179, 180–181;Yuan Yunsheng,
goals of the CCP 108; top-down censorship of retrospective 136–138,
approach 116; Xi Jinping Thought 164–165; see also ideological control
108–112, 114, 116 Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) 139,
art theory 93 151–152
Asian financial crisis 1997 34 Chen, Ken 237
auction houses: Asian financial crisis 1997 Chen Dongsheng 30
34; challenges faced by 47–48; Cultural Chen Lianyong 31
Relics Protection Law of PRC 35; Chen Zhigang 107
discrimination strategy in 21; Duo China Academy of Art, Hangzhou 223–224
Yun Xuan auction house 19–25; first China Artists Association 138–142, 148–150
auction 23–24, 29; foreign auctioneers in China Association of Auctioneers 34
China 50–52; growth and expansion of China/Avant-Garde exhibition (NAMOC)
33; internationalization 65–66; pricing 146
system 33–34; sales in 1995 34; sales of China Calligraphy Association 149–150
artworks 20–21; sourcing of artworks China Federation of Literary and Art
20; unrestituted artworks, sales of to 22; Circles (CFLAC) 111; 4th Congress,
younger generation of collectors and 62; Deng Xiaoping’s speech at 117; 6th
Zhong Shang Sheng Jia 36 Congress, Jiang Zemin’s speech at
Auction Law of the People’s Republic of 118; 10th/11th CFLAC congresses,
China 33–34 Xi Jinping’s speeches at 126–129;
autonomy: artistic, parallel market/state 11th Congress 109–110, 111; 2022
systems and 85; in choice of artworks to Conference 139–140; Literary and Art
display 80 Forum 2014, Xi Jinping’s speech at
avant-garde art movement 184 117–125; role of 111
awards for artists 128, 141–142 China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd.:
expansion of 48–49; first auctions
Baldwin, James 82 31–32; founding and growth of
Banville, John 145 30; internationalization 65; lawsuit
Beijing Contemporary Art Expo (BCAE) against 14–17; Post-SARS growth 38;
77–78 provenance due diligence 31; sourcing of
Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau, Fu artworks 31, 32; staff in early stages 31;
family lawsuit against 12–14 Taikang Insurance 30, 48–49
Beijing Forever International Auction China International Gallery Exhibition
Company 51 (CIGE) 39
Beijing Hanhai Auction Ltd. 36 China National Arts Fund (CNAF) 153–158
Beijing Rongbao Auction House 36 China Poly Group 38
Biennial Stars 235 Chinese Civilization, Project to Explore the
Bloodline Series: Comrade No. 120, 1998 Source of 131–132, 163
(Zhang Xiaogang) 42 Chinese Communist Party (CCP):
Book from the Sky (Xu Bing) 185, 186, Resolution of the Central Committee of the
187–188 Community Party of China on the major
Briers, David 219 achievement and historical experience of
Brown, Ben 46, 59 the Party’s century-long struggle 108–109;
Buddhism 216, 217, 225–226, 232 strategic goals of 108
Budi Tek 209 Chinese text, use of xiii
Butterfly (Zhao Bandi) 83 Christie’s, auctions in China 51–52
Chu, Clare 60
career advancement for artists 124–125, Civilization, Project to Explore the Source
128, 156 of Chinese 131–132, 163
256 Index
Clark, T.J. 210 Divination (Qu Yuan) (poem) 100–101

class labels in Maoist China 26n17 Djilas, Milovan 146, 149
Clunas, C. 18 DOKU the Self (Lu Yang) 214, 215, 216,
Cohen, Andrew 221 232
collaborations between luxury/fashion The Doubter (Qiu Anxiong) 209–210, 211
brands and art 68–69 Dragonfly Eyes (Xu Bing) 191, 192,
collectors: ability to acquire artworks 22; 193–194
beginnings of collections 32; Chinese, of due diligence re. provenance 15, 16
Western art 45; funding for collecting 62; Duo Yun Xuan auction house 19–25, 30, 32
nuanced approach by independent artists
96; reasons for collecting 83–84; Earnest, Jarrett 228
Ultimate Collectors 47; younger economic growth, arts’ contribution to 114
generation of 61–63 Ecosensibility Exercises (Zheng Bo) 238–239
compensation for confiscated artworks 6 Embracing Sand (Qu Yuan) (poem) 95
contemporary art/artists: 1993-2003 36–37; Espace Louis Vuitton 68
2004-2011, growth during 40–44; artistic exchanges, art and culture 39–40
integrity 175; future direction for the expectations for the market see future
market 64; research into, lack of funding direction for the market
for 173–174; Western research into 174; experiences of art 70
see also Li Songsong; Lu Yang; exports of artworks, restrictions on 21, 34
Qiu Anxiong; Xu Bing; Zheng Bo
COVID-19 pandemic, works arising from: Fan Di’an 90, 92, 122, 138
DOKU the Self (Lu Yang) 214, 215; fashion brands, collaborations with 68–69
Gravitational Arena (Xu Bing) 175, 176, Feng Keli 17
177–178; True Love (Li Songsong) 178, Fewsmith, Joseph 90
179, 180–181 59th International Art Exhibition of
criteria for display of artworks 81 La Biennale di Venezia 214
critics/criticism: future plans regarding financial crises: 1997 34; 2007 39, 43–44
162; membership of CAA 148; parallel financial sector, capital from 39–40
state/market systems 89–91; system for Fineberg, Jonathan 97
125–126 The Fire that Consumes All Before It
cryptocurrencies 71–72 (Twombly) 181
cultural exchange activities with foreign “Five-in-One” master plan 114
countries 141–142 Flag (Wu Weishan) 128
cultural identity 218 foreign auctioneers in China 50–52
Cultural Relics Protection Law of PRC 35 foreign countries, cultural exchange
Cultural Revolution: Red Guard activities with 141–142
ransacking and violence 7, 11, 12, 25n3, foreign direct investment (FDI) into China
25n6, 183–184; reluctance to talk about 38
4; Xu Bing’s experiences of 183–184 Fosun Foundation, Shanghai 46
currency used xiii–xiv 4531 (Li Songsong) 201
14th Five-Year Plan for the Development
Dai Jun 140 of the Culture Industry 160–163
Dai Xiaojing 24, 29–30 France, cooperation project with 141
Daoism 237, 238 French art work, 19th century 85, 86
data security 72 Fu family lawsuit against Beijing Cultural
Deng Xiaoping 117 Heritage Bureau 12–14
digital art creation, collection and funding: China National Arts Fund
circulation 71–72 (CNAF) 153–158; private museums 66;
digital strategy for cultural industry younger generation 62
160–161 future direction for the market: challenges
Ding Zejua 68 59–60; collaborations 68–71;
discrimination strategy in auction houses 21 contemporary art 62, 64; current plateau
Divination, exhibition for Qiu Xiaofei 97 60; digital art creation, collection and
Index 257
circulation 71–72; domestic galleries 138–142, 144–147; National Culture

64; experiences of art 70; international Digital Strategy 160–161; Regulation of
galleries 63–64; internationalization of Art Business and Management 159–160;
domestic auction houses 65–66; non- rigidity of 113; social benefits of artworks
fungible tokens (NFTs) art market 119–121; see also censorship; policy-
71–72; optimism 59; parallel state/market making on arts and culture
systems 87–88; private museums 66–68; implicit approach by independent artists
regulatory changes as unlikely 61; return 94–102, 98, 99, 100–101
to high levels as unlikely 60–61; tax and independence of artists from state system
61; younger generation of collectors 61–63 85, 94–102, 98, 99, 100–101
infrastructure of state art system: art
Galleria Continua 44 academies 139, 140, 150–153; changes
Galschiøt, Jens 78–79 in last decade 153–164; China Artists
Gan Xuejun 30, 31 Association 138–142, 148–150; China
Gao Hong 139, 152 National Arts Fund (CNAF) 153–158;
Ge Yulu 151 complexity of 138; coordination between
Ghost Pounding the Wall (Xu Bing) 188, 189, governing bodies 139; ideological control
190–191 138–142, 144–147; local culture and
global financial crisis 2007 39–40, 43–44 tourism bureaus 143; Ministry of Culture
government entities: overseeing restitution and Tourism 138–143, 160–163;
of artworks 26n14; see also infrastructure National Art Museum of China
of state art system (NAMOC) 143–148; National Cultural
government policies on arts and culture see Heritage Administration (NCHA) 143;
policy-making on arts and culture Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan
grant-making fund 153–158 (2021–2025) for National Economic
Gravitational Arena (Xu Bing) 175, 176, and Social Development of the People’s
177–178, 184, 188 Republic of China and Vision for 2035
Guidance on Deepening the Reform of 160–161; Regulation of Art Business and
the Professional Job Title System for Arts Management 158–160; state museums
Professionals 124–125 143–147
Guideline on Promoting the Culture institutions of state art system see
Industry to Empower Rural infrastructure of state art system
Revitalization 122 International Art Exhibition of La Biennale
di Venezia 59th 214
Hannah’s family 10–11 international auctioneers in China 50–52
Happy Meals (Zheng Bo) 246 international financial crisis 2007 39–40,
Heiden, Miety 53, 59 43–44
Helbling, Lorenz 58–59 international galleries: in China 45–46;
Hickey, Dave 84, 190 future direction for the market 63–64
Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with internationalization of domestic auction
Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity houses 65–66
to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All internet, control of 161–162
Respects 153
How Art Museum 53 Jiang Yingchun 50, 55, 65, 66–67
Huang Yasheng 151 Jiang Zemin 118
Hu Heping 77, 109, 139, 142 Jiang Zhi 91
Hu Yanyan 31, 38, 47 Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou 87
Jin Shangyi 114
ideological control: Central Academy Ji Yujie 92
of Fine Arts (CAFA) 151–152; China Johnson Chang 36
Artists Association 148–149; China Journeys to Greatness and Pictures of
National Arts Fund (CNAF) 154–155, Times—Art Exhibition Celebrating the
157; forbidden subjects 159–160; 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the
infrastructure of state art system Communist Party of China 143–145
258 Index
Kofman, Ava 193 Lopez, Barry 251, 252

Kou Qin 31, 37, 39, 48–49 Lu Mingjun 91
Kwok, Dennis W.H. 78 Lu Xiaodong 43
luxury/fashion brands, collaborations with
law and regulations: Auction Law of the 68–69
People’s Republic of China 33–34; Lu Yang: Buddhism 225–226, 232;
Cultural Relics Protection Law of PRC comparison with Qiu Anxiong 216–217;
35; exports of artworks, restrictions on creative philosophy/exploration 216–217,
34; lack of regarding restitution 9, 12, 232–233; DOKU the Self 214, 215,
15, 16; Notification to Apply for and 216, 232; Lu Yang Delusional Crime
Issue of Cultural Relics Auction Licenses and Punishment 230, 231–232; Lu Yang
35; Regulation of Art Business and Delusional Mandala 229; Moving Gods
Management 81; Regulations of Shanghai 229; Reanimation! Underwater Zombie Frog
Pudong New Area Cultural Relics and Works Ballet! 225; Sugiyama, Mao, collaboration
of Art Transactions 52 with 228, 232; Uterus Man 226–228, 227,
lawsuits related to restitution of artworks 232; Wrathful Deities 225
12–17 Lu Yang Delusional Crime and Punishment
leadership of literary and arts units (Lu Yang) 230, 231–232
123–125, 127 Lu Yang Delusional Mandala (Lu Yang) 229
Legacies of Exchange: Chinese Contemporary
Art from the Yuz Foundation exhibition Ma Jidong 16
209 Mao Zedong’s speech at Yan’an Forum on
Lehmann Maupin 63 Literature and Art 112–113, 114, 117,
Lei Xining 90 129–131
Le Sacre du printemps (Zheng Bo) 235, 236, Mao Zedong Thought 112–113
237 Marías, Javier 182, 205
Leung Chun-ying 79 market/state systems in parallel: artistic
Liang Yuanwei 69, 83 autonomy and 85; artists’ participation
Lin, Evelyn 37–38, 41, 45, 54, 61 in state roles/projects 87–89; art theory
Li Songsong: 4531 201; archery technique 93; autonomy in choice of artworks 80;
200–201, 202, 203; at CAFA 195; censorship 80–82; criteria for display
comparison with Xu Bing 182–183, of artworks 81; French art work, 19th
216; creative philosophy/exploration century, analogy with 85; future direction
195–196; Diego Veláquez 243; high for the market 87–88; growth of state-
school 194–195; Mist 196, 197, 198; old endorsed system 86; as learning from
photographs, use of 196, 197, 198–200; each other 87; nuanced approach by
105 shots 201, 202, 203; themes and independent artists 94–102, 98, 99,
issues 216; Three Decades 203, 204, 100–101; overseas travel for artists 92;
209–210; Tiananmen Square, impact of patronage by corporate sponsors/private
195–196, 203, 204, 209–210; True Love collectors 83–84; scholars in the state
178, 179, 180–181, 203; We Have Betrayed system 87; two events illustrating 77;
the Revolution exhibition 200; Western Western elements in state system 91
arts and culture as inspiring for 194–195 market system, transformation to 32
Lisson Gallery 63 Martin, Nastassja 237
Literary and Art Forum 2014, Xi Jinping’s Ma Sai 129
speech at 117–125, 146 MASSIMODECARLO 64
Liu Gang 32, 52, 83–84 Mayer Brown 79
Liu Xiaodong 88–89, 218 Mayfly Diary: February 22, 2020 (Zhang
Liu Yiqian 32, 33, 46–47, 53, 55, 67 Xiaogang) 97, 98
Liu Zhengyi 185 McCormick, Gavin 191
Li Xinfeng 92–93 migrant workers, Zheng Bo’s interest in
Li Xuesong 40, 47, 48, 60 245–246
local culture and tourism bureaus 143 Ministry of Culture and Tourism 138–143,
Long Museums 46, 67 160–163
Index 259
Ministry of Propaganda exhibitions 2022 “Overlaid” group exhibition, Tokyo Gallery

140 178
Mist (Li Songsong) 196, 197, 198 overseas travel for artists 92
Morrison, Toni 200
Moving Gods (Lu Yang) 229 Pace Gallery 45, 70, 97
Myers, John Bernard 181 parallel state/market systems: artistic
autonomy and 85; artists’ participation
National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in state roles/projects 87–89; art theory
104n32, 143–148 93; autonomy in choice of artworks 80;
National Cultural Heritage Administration censorship 80–82; criteria for display of
(NCHA) 143 artworks 81; critics and 89–91; French
National Digital Culture Strategy 71–72, art work, 19th century, analogy with 85;
160–161 future direction for the market 87–88;
Nationally Commissioned Major Art growth of state-endorsed system 86; as
Projects 138–139 learning from each other 86–87; nuanced
National Museum of China (NMC) 92 approach by independent artists 94–102,
National Social Science Fund 105n74 98, 99, 100–101; overseas travel for artists
National Young and Middle-aged Virtuous 92; patronage by corporate sponsors/
and Talented Artists award 128–129 private collectors 83–84; scholars in the
New Classic of Mountains and Seas (Qiu state system 87; two events illustrating 77;
Anxiong) 210, 212, 212–213, 218–219, Western elements in state system 91
221, 222, 223 party leadership 122–123, 127
New immigrants at the Three Gorges patriotism 122–123, 145
(Liu Xiaodong) 43 patronage by corporate sponsors/private
new media art, education on 223 collectors 83–84
NFT art market 71–72 Peng Liyuan 111
9th Beijing International Art Biennial 92 People’s Republic of China: 20th Party
non-fungible tokens (NFTs) art market Congress 77; art trade, prohibition of
71–72 18–19; see also infrastructure of state
non-profit art foundations 66 art system; policy-making on arts and
Norman, David 45, 46, 60 culture
Notice of the General Office of the Beijing Perl, Jed 82, 101, 203
Municipal Government on the Revocation photographs, old 17
of Offices at All Levels that Oversee the The Pillar of Shame (Galschiøt), removal of
Implementation of the Property Restitution 78–79
13–14 plant drawings of Zheng Bo 239, 240, 241
Notification to Apply for and Issue of policy-making on arts and culture: 10th/
Cultural Relics Auction Licenses 35 11th CFLAC congresses, Xi Jinping’s
nuanced approach by independent artists speeches at 127–129; 11th Congress of
94–102, 98, 99, 100–101 CFLAC 109–110, 111; art criticism
125–126; awards for artists 128–129;
105 shots (Li Songsong) 201, 202, 203 career advancement for artists 124–125,
online databases, control of 161–162 128–129; economic growth, arts’
Opinions on promoting the normalization contribution to 114; “Five-in-One”
and long-term effectiveness of party history master plan 114; leadership of literary
learning and education 116 and arts units 123–125, 127; Opinions on
Opinions on Properly Handling the Issues promoting the normalization and long-term
Remaining in the Confiscated Property of the effectiveness of party history learning and
Cultural Revolution 5–6 education 116; party leadership 122–123;
Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021– patriotism 122–123; Project to Explore
2025) for National Economic and Social the Source of Chinese Civilization
Development of the People’s Republic of 131–132; Resolution of the Central
China and Vision for 2035 160–161 Committee of the Community Party of
Ouyang Meixue 94 China on the major achievement and
260 Index
historical experience of the Party’s century- Reanimation! Underwater Zombie Frog Ballet!
long struggle 108–109, 112; responsibilities (Lu Yang) 224–225
of artists and writers 108, 118–119, 127; Red Gate Gallery 32–33
rigidity of ideological control 113; rural Red Guard, ransacking and violence by 7,
revitalization 122; serving the people 11, 12, 25n3, 25n6, 183–184
121–122; social benefits of artworks Regulation of Art Business and
119–121; strategic goals of the CCP Management 81, 158–160
108; strategic plan 112–116; top-down regulations see law and regulations
approach 116; Xi Jinping on 109–112; Resolution of the Central Committee of the
Xi Jinping Thought 114, 116; see also Community Party of China on the major
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with achievement and historical experience of the
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Party’s century-long struggle 108–109, 112,
The Political Life of Plants (Zheng Bo) 139, 161–162, 164
241–242 restitution of artworks post-Cultural
Poly Culture Group 39 Revolution: after initial push for
Poly International Auction Co. Ltd. 38, 49, 9; compensation 5–6; conference
65, 71 1984 6; evidence, requirement for
Ports 69 8; first documentation of 5–6, 25n8;
post-Cultural Revolution restitution of government entities overseeing 26n14;
artworks 4–9, 20, 25n8, 26n14 guidelines on 5–6; Hannah’s experience
Post-SARS growth 38 10–11; lack of detailed records 7–8,
Prada Rong Zhai 69 12; law, lack of 9, 12, 15, 16; lawsuits
pricing system 33 related to 12–17; Nicole’s experience
primary research xiii 11–12; number of artworks restituted 91;
private art galleries, first 32–33 Opinions on Properly Handling the Issues
private museums: emergence and rise of Remaining in the Confiscated Property of the
46–47; first 33; future direction for the Cultural Revolution 5–6, 25n8; overseas
market 66–68; Western art collections comparison 15–16; principles for return
52–56 of artworks 8; reluctance to, of staff 4,
professional services to artists 36 6–7; Shanghai 20; Tianjin, 1984 4–9;
Project to Explore the Source of Chinese Xi Tui mentality 6–7
Civilization 131–132, 163 rigidity of ideological control 113
propaganda department 124; exhibitions rural revitalization 122
2022 140
provenance due diligence 15, 16, 31 scholars in the state system 87
public trading of unrestituted artworks Schwabsky, Barry 200
14–17 self-censorship 79, 89
serving the people as role of arts and
Qiao Zhibing 46, 52, 53, 55, 62 culture 121–122
Qin Daihua 137 798 Contemporary Art District, Beijing 41
Qiu Anxiong: comparison with Lu Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Yang 216–217; creative philosophy/ (SARS) 34
exploration 213–214, 216–217; cultural Shanghai Due Yun Xuan Auctioneer Co.
identity 218; The Doubter 209–210, 211; Ltd. 22–24
German Expressionism as influence 218; Shanghai West Bund Development
New Classic of Mountains and Seas 210, Company 141
212, 212–213, 218–219, 221, 222, 223; ShanghArt 58–59
return to China 218; Staring into Amnesia Shenzhen Biennial 81
220–221; Western art and culture as Silbergeld, Jerome 185–186, 187
influence 218 Sing for Her (Zheng Bo) 246, 247
Qiu Xiaofei 97, 99, 100–101 Smee, Sebastian 145, 201
Qiu Zhijie 88 social benefits of artworks 119–121
Qu Qingshan 112 socialist realism style 144–147
Qu Yuan 95, 97, 100–101 Song Art Museum 67–68
Index 261
Sotheby’s 30; auctions in China 51; impact on 195–196, 203, 204, 209–210;
Contemporary Art Asia auction, New Three Decades (Li Songsong) 203, 204,
York, 2006 41; contemporary art auction 209–210
2004 41 Tianjin, restitution of artworks post-
sourcing of artworks: China Guardian Cultural Revolution 4–9
Auctions Co. Ltd. 31, 32; state-owned Tie Ning 110, 117
antiquities shops 20 Times Museum 68
Soviet Union, trade relations with 19 Tóibín, Colm 193–194
Spalding, David 199 Tokyo Gallery 178
Staring into Amnesia (Qiu Anxiong) trade relations with other countries 19
220–221 Trotskyky grew into a tree (Qiu Xiaofei) 97,
Stars Art exhibition (NAMOC) 146 99, 100
state/market systems in parallel: artistic True Love (Li Songsong) 178, 179, 180–181,
autonomy and 85; artists’ participation 203
in state roles/projects 87–89; art theory Tuo Xiaotang 31
93; autonomy in choice of artworks 80; 20th Party Congress 77
censorship 80–82; criteria for display Two Establishments 112, 115
of artworks 81; French art work, 19th Twombly, Cy 181
century, analogy with 85; future direction Two Safeguards 89
for the market 87–88; growth of state-
endorsed system 86; as learning from Ullens Collection sale 38–39
each other 86–87; nuanced approach Ultimate Collectors 47
by independent artists 94–102, 98, 99, universities: criteria for admittance 104n31;
100–101; overseas travel for artists 92; infrastructure of state art system 150–153;
patronage by corporate sponsors/private inspection of 89
collectors 83–84; scholars in the state unrestituted artworks, public trading of
system 87; two events illustrating 77; 14–17
Western elements in state system 91; see USSR, trade relations with 19
also infrastructure of state art system Uterus Man (Lu Yang) 226–228, 227, 232
state museums in infrastructure of state art
system 143–148 video art, education on 223
state-owned antiquities shops 18–25; Duo Vigneron, Frank 246
Yun Xuan auction house 19–25; first Vision for 2035 160–161, 163
auction 22–24, 29; sales of artworks 21;
sourcing of artworks 20; unrestituted Wall of Ice (Ai Song) 96
artworks, sales of to 22 Wang, Jenny 46, 52, 55, 66, 69–71
state policies on arts and culture see Wang Xiao 4, 6
policy-making on arts and culture Wang Xueli 213
strategic goals of the CCP 108 Wang Yannan 30, 31
Sugiyama, Mao 228, 232 Wang Zhongjun 67
Sun Xiaoxia 93 We Have Betrayed the Revolution exhibition
Survival Manual (Zheng Bo) 248 (Li Songsong) 200
Weil, Simone 198–199, 239
TAG Art Museum, Qingdao 86–87 West Bund Art and Design Fair 52
Taikang Insurance 30, 48–49 West Bund Museum 141
Tajik Bride paintings (Jin Shangyi) 114 Western art: Chinese collectors of 45;
TANK Shanghai 46 incorporation into state system 91;
Taruskin, Richard 211 Li Songsong and 194–195; private
tax, future direction for the market and 61 museums’ collections 52–56; Qiu
technology, collaborations with 70 Anxiong and 218
Three Decades (Li Songsong) 203, 204, Western businesses and artworks 37
209–210 Western galleries: in China 45–46; future
Tiananmen Square events: commemorative direction for the market 63–64
activities regarding 78–79; Li Songsong, Wrathful Deities (Lu Yang) 225
262 Index
Wu Hongliang 87 themes and issues 216; US, time spent

Wu Hung 183 in 191
Wu Weishan 128, 130, 138, 142, Xu Jiang 131
144
Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art,
Xia Chao 126 Mao’s speech at 112–113, 114, 117; 80th
Xi Jinping: 10th/11th CFLAC congresses, anniversary of 129–131
speeches at 127–129; 20th CPC National Yang Bin 45, 54, 62
Congress 164; art criticism 125–126; Yang Lugen 45
Chinese worldview 93–94; Hold High Yan Huang Art Museum 32
the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Yan Lianke 188
Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build Yao, Pauline 83, 95
a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects Young Art Critic Training Program 126
153; instructions from in the Resolution younger generation of collectors 61–63
109–112; leadership of literary and arts Yuan Yunsheng, censorship of retrospective
units 123–125; Literary and Art Forum 136–138, 164–165
2014, speech at 117–125, 146; and Mao’s Yu Jinsheng 39
speech at Yan’an Forum on Literature
and Art 129–131; modernization of Zhang Li 53
Marxism in China 86, 93–94; party Zhang Peili 223
leadership and patriotism 122–123; Zhang Rongde 19–20, 47
Project to Explore the Source of Chinese Zhang Xiaogang 36, 41, 42, 42–43, 97, 98
Civilization 131–132; serving the people Zhao Yu 29
as role of arts and culture 121–122; social Zhao Ziyang 31
benefits of artworks 119–121 Zheng Bo: as Biennial Star 235;
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with conversation-focused creative approach
Chinese Characteristics for a New Era: 243, 245; Daoism 238; Diego Veláquez
analysis by CCTV 108; CNAF 154; 242–243; ecology-focused practice
cultural confidence and 84; elevation to a 239, 240, 241, 248–249, 250, 251–252;
Thought 114–115; 14th Five-Year Ecosensibility Exercises 238–239; Happy
Plan for the Development of the Meals 246; homosexuality 244; Le Sacre
Culture Industry 160–163; as priority of du printemps 235, 236, 237; migrant
Ministry of Culture and Tourism 77; Two workers, interest in 245–246; plant
Establishments 116 drawings 239, 240, 241; plants and 248;
Xin Wang 229 The Political Life of Plants 241–242;
Xiong Bingwan 16–17 Prado Museum, Madrid, visits to 242;
Xi Tui mentality 6–7 Pteridophilia 249, 250, 251–252; Sing
Xu Bangda 31 for Her 246, 247; socially engaged art,
Xu Bing: avant-garde art movement 184; database on 246, 248; spectrum of
Book from the Sky 185, 186, 187–188; subjects 244; Survival Manual 248; Zheng
at CAFA 184; comparison with Li Bo: Wanwu Council 238
Songsong 182–183; creative philosophy/ Zheng Bo: Wanwu Council (Zheng Bo) 238
exploration 184–185, 195–196; cultural Zheng Hao 53, 61, 70
identity 218; Cultural Revolution, Zhong Shang Sheng Jia auction house
experiences of 183–184; Dragonfly Eyes 36–37
191, 192, 193–194; Ghost Pounding the Zhou Wanjing 90
Wall 188, 189, 190–191; Gravitational Zhou Yiji, lawsuit against China Guardian
Arena 175, 176, 177–178, 184, 188; auction house 14–17
printmaking education 184; surveillance Zhu Junbo 22–24, 29–30, 60, 67
video footage, use of 191, 192, 193–194; Zodiac Heads (Ai Weiwei) 209

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“There is much to be learned from this fascinating volume on the history and

economics of the art market in the People’s Republic, so radically affected by

Preface and Acknowledgements xi

1 The Origin of China’s Art Market 3

2 Auction Houses, Galleries, Art Fairs and Private Museums 29

3 Expectations for the Market 58

4 The Paradox of Two Parallel Art Systems 77

5 The Role of Arts and Culture in Today’s China 107

6 The Infrastructure of the State Art System and the Party’s

7 Beijing, CAFA and Societal Energy 173

8 Shanghai, Buddhist Practice and the Post-​Apocalyptic

9 Hong Kong, Plants and Ten Thousand Things 235

BCAE Beijing Contemporary Art Expo 北京当代艺术博览会

Acronyms and Names xvii

NCCCP National Congress of the Chinese 中国共产党全国代表大会

China’s Art Market

The Untold, Poignant Truths

Tianjin, 1984, a National Political Order on Post-​Cultural

Solving the outstanding problems on property confiscated during the

The document urged that nationwide restitution be completed by the end

a commentary in People’s Daily, one of the leading state-​owned newspapers, titled

will be beneficial to the development of a stable and united political situ-

In many instances it was impossible to know whether the right artworks

endeavor. During the Cultural Revolution, house-​ransack and property seizures

Collectors and Lawsuits

Shanghai, 1983, a Letter from the Local Cultural Bureau

Beijing, 1966, a House-​Ransack by the Red Guards

Beijing, 2012, a Lawsuit Against the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau

The instructions in the announcement were the foundation of the Bureau’s

Beijing, 2012, Zhou Yiji’s Restitution Request against China Guardian

As a standard practice, before a public art auction takes place, information on

The current owner of the object should be presumed to be the legitimate

The State-​Owned Antiquities Shops

From the middle of the sixteenth century the “enjoyment of antiquities”

This “manner of possessing” would be likely to assume even greater sig-

Duo Yun Xuan, from a State-​Owned Antiquities Shop to the First

counselors of the State Council and librarians of Central Research Institute of

59 https://​d ata.worldb​a nk.org/​i ndica​tor/​N E.EXP.GNFS.CD?locati​ons=​CN.

1993–​2003 The Early Stage of Development

country. Such a one-​directional movement of artworks continuously limits the

The Chinese Contemporary Art Market

2004–​2011 Explosive Growth

Evelyn Lin, Deputy Chairman, International Director, and Head of

The Growth of the Chinese Contemporary Art Market

My interests were inspired by many large exhibitions, like those curated

Bloodline-​Big Family: Comrade No.120, oil on canvas 190 x 150 cm,

In 2009 Sotheby’s New York stopped offering a Chinese contemporary art

In 2008 Zhang Xiaogang entered an exclusive representation agreement with

In hindsight, because the collector base of Chinese contemporary art was

Western Galleries Come to China

collector, including over 50 works by Picasso and important sculptures by Rodin

2012 to Today: The Auction Market Correction and Maturity.

Shanghai held the most comprehensive exhibition of Louise Bourgeois in China

a remarkable development of China’s art market.... The increased number

As discussed earlier, in 2012 the art auction market in China experienced a

entrepreneurs whose businesses have established a strong track record in

Li Xuesong shares the same observation as Hu Yanyan from China

The development of the auction business in China is distorted. In Western

The changes that Li Xuesong observed about his head-​to-​head competitor,

The past years have witnessed a significant transformation of Guardian.

Over the next 5 years, we (Poly Auctions) hope to transform ourselves to

Foreign Auctioneers in China

a result, collectors preferred to buy Western artworks in free-​port cities such

8 Shanghai, Buddhist Practice and the Post-Apocalyptic

Tianjin, 1984, a National Political Order on Post-Cultural

a commentary in People’s Daily, one of the leading state-owned newspapers, titled

endeavor. During the Cultural Revolution, house-ransack and property seizures

Beijing, 1966, a House-Ransack by the Red Guards

The State-Owned Antiquities Shops

Duo Yun Xuan, from a State-Owned Antiquities Shop to the First

59 https://d ata.worldba nk.org/i ndicator/N E.EXP.GNFS.CD?locations=CN.

1993–2003 The Early Stage of Development

country. Such a one-directional movement of artworks continuously limits the

2004–2011 Explosive Growth

Bloodline-Big Family: Comrade No.120, oil on canvas 190 x 150 cm,

The changes that Li Xuesong observed about his head-to-head competitor,

a result, collectors preferred to buy Western artworks in free-port cities such

When discussing this collecting trajectory, the Beijing-based collector Yang

A Fast-Learning Market Nurtured by Western Galleries

When Swiss-born Lorenz Helbling came to mainland China in the mid-1990s

growth and the uncertainty around the US-China relationship appeared to be

An increasing number of younger-generation HNWIs will

A tax-benefit system to support philanthropy, including operating private

In September 2017, Song Art Museum, established by the co-founder of

The future for the NFT (non-fungible token) art market in

4 www.lissong allery.com/exhibitions/love-is-a-metaphysical-g ravity.

brands, thousands of VIP visitors, and frantic art-collecting activities: million-

Déjà Vu, the 19th-Century French Art Market?

The following chapters of the book, by providing an in-depth analysis of the

The artist in the act of creation— working through particular words,

The temporary, site-specific installation by Ai Song, and the paintings by

55 www.bisu.edu.cn/a rt/2021/11/1/a rt_18955_ 286869.html.

92 https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2020/05/21/zhang-x iaogangs-respon se-to-the-pandem ic/.

In January 2022, after a year-long celebration of the CCP’s 100th anniversary

CFLAC consists of 55 institutional members,20 including the national-